They Walk Amongst Us
by Celeste Rose
Summary: They're Here. More are Coming. Don't Worry. We have a Plan. That's what they told us, but will the plan hold up to an alien invasion? A multi chapter story starting with The Crossing.
1. The Crossing

Disclaimer: I do not own Threshold, and if I did, it would still be in production.  
Please see author's note in my profile for more information.  
Beta'd by memorial-ETHOS. Note: "I've corrected, to my own knowledge, her grammar. The majority of the story is left in tact to it's original version."

Chapter One: The Crossing

All good things eventually come to an end. Dr. Fenway had learned that the hard way. Three failed marriages and a so-so career that hadn't really accomplished anything taught him that lesson far too late in life to do anything about it. Sure, he used to be the medical director for NASA, but who had honestly ever gave a damn about that? Life had been easy for Dr. Fenway; he never really had to deal with much of anything at NASA. Well, he had to put up with astronauts who hated their doctor, and administrators who didn't really know anything... It was nothing like what he had to deal with now... His mission was to find a cure for something that was constructed by an alien race so advanced that their technology bordered on the supernatural... Figures. He had made it to his fifties, hadn't been drafted into any wars, and had avoided most of the situations that could get someone killed real fast, yet here he was, stuck in a city he hated, going against a very real alien threat. And just when he had started feeling safe...

'Tis life though...

----

The days had passed rather slowly at first, but, of course, they now felt like they flew by. Time, when it's accompanied by adrenaline, seems to do that... September 16th, 2005 had brought on the beginning of a new age for humanity. It was up to six people to make sure that new age was ushered in as peacefully as possible...

Molly Caffrey led this mis-matched group composed of three scientists, a soldier, and the deputy national security advisor, J.T. Baylock. At that moment, her job was getting harder then ever before... Not only did she have to deal with infectees, possible outbreaks, an alien baby, and the possibility of herself turning into an infectee. Now she had to deal with the new national security advisor, Ed Whitaker.

Her raven locks fell around her face, her head was in her hands; sometimes this all seemed like too much for even her to handle. She couldn't take it coldly like Cavennaugh, or cynically like Fenway, and she couldn't drown herself in booze like Ramsey. She couldn't even try to forget it with the ones she loved, like Lucas could. Her family was hours away! And now she couldn't even talk to Andrea... She stopped her sobbing and tried to compose herself before anyone walked in the room. It wouldn't do for anyone to see her like this. She was supposed to be strong, that was her job. To be strong and composed, to be a leader.

Leader's were overrated. She took a deep breath and straightened herself up while making a grab for her purse and taking out the small hand mirror all women seemed to have. It wouldn't do for anyone to see her like this. She couldn't be perceived as weak; to be looked upon as fragile meant that she could loose Threshold. And if she lost control of this plan... Well, the world just might end...

She peered into the looking glass, covering up the bags underneath her eyes. That was another thing; She could never let anyone know she was missing sleep, least of all Fenway. Molly hated the prospect of medical leave most of all. She arranged her hair in a bun so no one would notice the limpness to it, and applied a fresh coat of foundation and treated her puffy eyes with eye drops. She stood up and pulled down vainly at her now wrinkled pants suit. Finally, she looked composed. All she lacked was the fully confident expression, and she assumed this as she walked out the door...

She smiled as she passed the guards who were stragically placed in the building, Molly was headed towards the med lab. The baby was soon to be born, even though it was up to her to make a difficult decision. The child could be born an infectee... Fenway had left it up to her to decide if he should give the woman an abortion or not, which was a very difficult decision indeed.

It was one of the hardest decisions she had ever faced; was it even right to make this choice for another woman? It wasn't as much a matter of human life, but that of "was this her choice to make". The poor woman had tried so hard to have a baby in the first place, but if it was born an alien... Molly didn't even want to comprehend that, she didn't want to think it. This was someone she could not save.

And in Molly's thoughts, no one was beyond redemption.

---

When Fenway looked up from his latest blood sample, Molly was in the door. "What is it now!" he grumbled before looking back down through his microscope.

"I haven't made a decison, yet. I really want your opinion on this one, Fenway."

He looked back up at her, "My opinion? I don't have an opinion. That's why I left it up to you. I've got a recommendation, but I'm not choosing on this one. It would be easier to have the baby abort, instead of it going through life as an infectee. The problem I have with it is that the woman wants to keep her child. Its not my call-," he paused and pointed at the sleeping infectee, "its your's or hers." The doctor went back to studying his sample.

Molly sat down on a stool next to him, "Yes, I know what you're talking about. No matter what, she's still a sentient aware being. And she wants to keep the child."

"Yes, and what right do we have to circumvent her rights? I know its dangerous, but there's no guarantee if the child's infected or not. Its way too early to run the right tests."

Caffrey nodded, "We'll wait till we find out for sure then." She stood up and walked across the room, pausing at the infectees bedside while giving a sigh. Then she walked over to the still unconcious Gunneson.

"Will he ever wake up again?"

"I really don't know. There's no telling with the infectees, if he was just human. Then no, I wouldn't place a bet on him waking up. But since he's been infected, there's probably a good chance that one day he will wake."

"Hmm..." she looked back at Fenway, "What's he even doing up here?"

"I couldn't provide him adequate medical care down there. I don't like going down to the holding cells."

Caffrey nodded before leaving the room.

----

Cavennaugh was pacing in the break room. For some reason he hated to be cooped up like this. He needed to be out doing something instead of pacing back and forth. Hello wall, its nice to see you again. Once more turn of the heels, and there's the other wall.

He sighed. There had to be something to do. He thought about calling Cynthia, but... No, he couldn't do that here. What was there to do for a soldier in this place other then to guard the prisoners? They were already heavily guarded, though. He wasn't needed.

This had been his problem ever since he was little; he got bored too easy. That had been one of the reason why he was sent to military school. Boredom was met with things to do, so boredom was best to be avoided there.

It couldn't be avoided here though. Sean was many things, but he certainly wasn't a scientist or a beauracrat. Yet, here he was stuck amongst them, without anything to do but to be head of security. Not that it was boring all of the time. Sometimes he actually got to something. He grinned, thinking about the time...

Suddenly the alarms were echoing around the building. Sean's eyes widened; he no longer had a reason to be bored after all...

----

Thirty minutes earlier:

Caffrey walked into the meeting room. "J.T., what's wrong? What was so urgent that you rang?" she asked, holding up her phone.

"Ah, well, yes its important." J.T. had never been hesitant to tell Molly anyting, but this... Well, this might break her.

"Whitaker is interested in Libby Drennan's baby. He's decided for you that the child will be born, whether its infected or not." J.T. finally said after clearing his throat.

Molly blinked for a few seconds, "Wh-what?" she stuttered. "What right does he have to make that decision!"

"Well, he is our boss. And he's actually the one in charge of Threshold. Molly, you know this. You're only in charge because he says you are. That doesn't change the fact that he can change your orders, and he just did that." J.T. looked uncomfortable.

Molly was still outraged. "That child is most likely an alien infectee! It WILL be dangerous, and most likely end up killing someone before this over. He does know that, doesn't he!"

"Yes, he said he understood the risks, but it'll all be worth it at the end."

"Huh? Don't tell me; this is political, isn't it! This isn't about abortion rights is it?" Molly's face seemed to go as bright as her shirt.

"Yes, he's playing politics." J.T. confirmed.

Molly's eyes flashed. "It figures! He just has to inject politics where they don't belong! This isn't about rights. This is about whether we allow an alien to be born right underneath our noses or not!"

"Yes, I know Caffrey! And I agree with you. He's our boss though, so we'd best lay quiet on this one. We need to keep our jobs, alright? If we don't... We just need to keep them. This way we can stop something else from happening." Baylock looked away for a moment before sighing. "There are other things I want to talk about with you, Caffrey."

"Go ahead." she said rather forcibly.

"The data-miners have found nothing on Crewman Pena or Captain Manning. Instead they have discovered some interesting correlations between the money being received by Sanford and Captain Manning's trip here."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Its almost as if they have a plan of their own, Molly. We know they can communicate from long distances and you guys haven't figured out how to detect dreams yet. What I'm saying is that both of them may be here again. They're congregating."

Molly blinked. "I don't have a plan for an organized plot by the aliens... Wait a second! I see what you mean. Remember at the plant? When this all started they met there. Maybe they laid down a plan then. Novak's job was to find Tate and get the artifact while Sonntag's job was to genetically modify food. I wonder what was Gunneson's?"

"He appeared for you Caffrey. Didn't he tell you that you were one of them?"

"Yeah, and then he appeared again when we played that signal fragment. Maybe Lucas was right about Gunneson appearing because of us and not because he was drew to the signal."

"And Park's job was to make a machine to play the signal using our own technology..." J.T. finished. "But what does this have to do with Pena and Manning?"

"Sanford's job was to spread the signal using his sperm. Captain Manning's job is what? And what is Pena's job as well?" Here she came to a block.

"We can't determine what his next move is yet, can we?" Baylock asked.

Caffrey nodded, "There's no way we can tell what the Captain is up to. There's too many possibilities, but whatever it is, it's bad. There's too much opportunity here in D.C. for something to go wrong. I think we're missing a piece of the puzzle at the moment..." She sighed.

J.T. grunted, "You're right on that one. Also, you really need to talk to Ramsey. He's getting worse. He even blew me off when I confronted him about his gambling habits. Thank you for arranging for me to talk to him, though. Remember, Caffrey, don't mention the issue of the baby to Whitaker. We want to be able to fight another day, alright?"

She nodded, "I'll go and talk to Ramsey th-"

Suddenly, lights started flashing everywhere and a loud siren wailed throughout the building. She swirled, looking out into the corridor to see what was happening. The guards all seemed to be running towards the elevators and stairwells.

"Hold on a minute!" One of them stopped and saluted. "What's going on?"

He flashed his radio. "We managed to get a report from a fallen guard; three infectees are on the loose with guns. They escaped on their way for routine blood work. Now, if you would pardon me, madam." the guard rushed off, shouting something into his radio.

Molly and J.T. shared a look that could mean only one thing; 'Oh, shit.'

----

Janklow and Novack meanwhile were wrecking havoc in the sterile hallways of the Threshold building. Somehow the restraints hadn't been enough to hold them and the guards were pushovers. Karyn Reynolds came up behind them and cast a questioning towards their direction..

"It's clear that way. No one will be coming from the back." she said as she wiped her bloody hands on her orange jumpsuit.

Novak nodded. "Come, we have to accomplish the mission."

"Yes, the mission..." Janklow thought back. He turned and shot out a window. He knelt beside the shiny shards of glass and picked up one. "Will this work?"

Novak nodded, "Yes, that will work perfectly. Let me see it..." The cadet passed the glass to Novak who pressed it against his own arm. The blood dripped, contrasting sharply against the clear glass. "Yes, this will do."

The man started forward again. He paused for a moment and turned towards the other two. "Come." They followed, whipping out the guns they had collected on the way and laying waste the hall ahead of them. Bullets were flying everywhere. They soon encountered guards...

The sound of gunfire was echoing throughout the building. The infectees seemed to have superhuman abilities when it came to aiming the guns; nothing stood in their way. They killed several more guards before making their way further down the hall.

"Where is the target?" Karyn thought to Novak.

Janklow and Novak both shrugged. Novak thought " We haven't seen him yet."

Janklow nodded, confirming Novak's thought. Suddenly he paused and pointed towards a man hiding in a lab. "The agent, he's there." Novak lifted his gun and fired straight into the pane of glass. Janklow joined him. The man hidden behind the glass went down without a fight.

"He's not dead is he?" Karyn thought as Novak rushed to the man's side.

"No he isn't. The target has been acquired." he thought as he stabbed the man's chest with the shard. He stood back up just in time to notice Cavennaugh and his security team finally make it. They took aim and fired. For a brief period, Novak remember no more...

Cavennaugh rushed over to the downed man and checked for a pulse. "HE'S STILL HERE!" But then he noticed the single bloody shard of glass sticking up from the man's chest, "Oh shit... Get Fenway!"

----

Fenway shook his head, "Cavennaugh, there just isn't any way to save him. I've never seen the mutation infect someone this quickly..."

The agent was laying on the table convulsing. Occasionally he would stop seizing; during those times though, he was passed out. And there was nothing that Fenway could do for the poor man.

"Why is it infecting my man so quickly!" Cavennaugh demanded.

Fenway turned and glared at him. "I don't know, and I won't know till more tests are run. Okay? Come back later."

Fenway was expecting a bad response from Cavennaugh, but not one that as bad as he got. He was slammed against the wall. Sean was holding his neck and snarling. "I don't want it later, I want to know now!"

"Put me down!" growled Fenway.

Cavennaugh was about to say something when Caffrey walked in the door. "SEAN! Put Nigel down!"

Fenway was dropped to the ground, he stood rubbing his neck. "What's wrong with you!"

"Nothing!" growled Cavennaugh as he brushed past Molly and stalked out the door.

Molly cast a surprised look over her shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, and I still miss NASA..." Fenway muttered. "I won't have any results for awhile; the medicine put him into more seizures so I had to take him off of it."

She nodded. "I see. Do you have any theories why it's infecting him so quickly?"

Fenway went over to his patient, taking a syringe out of his coat and putting it into an IV. "Not really, but its possible its because of his genes. He's offering no real resistance other then the seizures, of course, to the mutation. Its almost like they chose the person who it would infect the quickest." He shook his head. "And Cavennaugh is a bit upset about losing some of his men."

"That's understandable, but not that upset. Are you sure he's okay?"

Fenway chuckled to himself. "That's not the first time I've been slammed against a wall. It won't be last either; that's a normal reaction for someone who cares for his soldiers."

Caffrey gave him the same look she had given Cavennaugh. "Okay."

Fenway sighed before he told the actual truth "He's blaming himself."

"Why would he be doing that? He's not responsible for the breakout!"

"It's one of those things you won't understand. Anything else, Caffrey?"

"You're playing the blame game too, aren't you?"

He glared at her and sighed before turning back around and looking at the new infectee. "I've never seen the infection take this quickly. Its like they found the perfect man to infect."

"You're avoiding the subject, but good point. What are you suggesting?" she asked.

"I think they can tell who will be genetically more susceptible to the mutation. That's just a theory though."

She nodded, "It makes sense, though. What's the point of taking the time to infect someone if their body is just going to reject it..."

"Exactly." he muttered.

"This means the game has just gotten a whole lot more dangerous..." she sighed, "Anyways I came to tell you that we're having a meeting in the meeting room in an hour."

He nodded. "Oh, they killed twelve guards in total. Its like they were specifically targeting this agent."

She nodded. "I'll try and talk to Cavennaugh." Molly said before she left the med-lab. She turned before she walked out the door. "And its not anyone's fault, especially yours. I don't like going down to the holding cells, either."

Fenway hung his head. Once more it seemed his fault. How many people were going to die just because of his screw-ups and his cowardice...?

----

An hour later all of the red team were seated around the round table.

Ramsey and Lucas were muttering among themselves. Luckily enough they weren't in the building of the time of the escape attempt. Cavennaugh wasn't talking to anybody; he seemed to be taking it bad. Fenway was typing away on his laptop, trying to ignore the world around him. J.T. was trying to get his blood pressure down still, and Caffrey hadn't even showed up yet.

And here Ed Whitaker was, bored out of his mind and stuck in the company of three scientists, one muscle man, and a fellow bureaucrat he didn't even like. It was just great; part of Caffrey's plan had failed and she had the tenacity to be late to the meeting she set up herself.

Something about her irked the former senator, and he was just itching to change that plan of hers...

"Well!" he asked J.T. "Where's Caffrey!"

J.T. shrugged. "She'll be here soon. I believe she was pulling all of the files she needs for some presentation of hers."

Whitaker looked confused. "She has a plan for a breakout?"

"Yes, we have a facility in West Virginia. Its just been completed. We were planning on moving them there later this week anyways. The presentation is over something else, you'll see."

Whitaker sighed, sat back, and decided to wait for a few more minutes...

Molly walked into the room five minutes later with files loaded in her hands. She placed them on the table and inserted a disk into the main computer and picked up the remote.

"Why were you so late, Ms. Caffrey?" Whitaker demanded.

"Sorry, J.T. and I hit on an idea earlier. We need to run it by you guys first though."

"Aren't we going to discuss the breakout!" Lucas asked.

"As you already know we have a facility in West Virginia. We were going to move them later this week. I'll just have to push the schedule up to tomorrow."

Whitaker nodded. "How are you going to move them?"

"We already have an eighteen wheeler outfitted. Lucas, since they broke out of their restraints, I want them upgraded."

Pegg nodded, "I'll see what I can do tonight, but no guarantees."

Caffrey nodded. "The eighteen wheeler will have an armed escort. We've decided to take the routes out of the city of the least resistance." She pressed a button on the remote and a map popped on the screen with the route high lighted. "As you can see it's the least residential of the possible routes. We will begin tomorrow night a couple of hours after midnight. By that time we can clear the most likely areas that they could break out at, exc."

Whitaker nodded. "Good work Caffrey, we will be having a talk about your plan soon."

Molly's eyes barely narrowed, but she nodded back. "Gunneson and Mrs. Drennan will be staying here though, because of their conditions. Anything else on this subject?"

"But what about the new in-"

"How are we going to pull this one-"

"Only twenty four hours to build new res-"

"Are you sure about th-"

"West Virginia, in the middle of hickvil-"

"Is this such a good id-"

All six men seemed to speak up at once, causing Molly to hold up her hands. "I'll answer more of the questions later. We have something of upmost importance to deal with."

She aimed the remote at the computer again, bringing up a different file from her disk. "J.T. and I were thinking earlier today. We know the crewmen met before they split off across the country. We have reason now to think that maybe these weren't random ways to spread the infection. Maybe they're not just doing what they know how to do, but what they have been assigned to do as well."

Ramsey laughed. "Like a friggen alien homework assignment? Oh please, Caffrey! And just who would the dear ole' alien professor be, then?"

"I'm serious. I think they do have a plan. All the evidence seems to be pointing that way."

"If they have a plan, they would have to be communicating. No plan can work without communication." Whitaker said.

"They have been communicating, through their dreams." Cavennaugh said.

"How do you know that!" Ed asked.

"Because I was one of the people exposed to the tape, and I've had several dreams. All have been documented and submitted to Fenway if you want to read them. They are communicating, no doubt about it." snarled Cavennaugh.

Fenway nodded. "This way the problem of sending messages in ways that can be detected is bypassed. It makes perfect sense, don't you see?"

Whitaker sighed. "So that isn't a limitation for them, is it?"

"Anyway, let's outline what has happened with the infectees so far." Caffrey said as she brought up a new file with her remote.

"The Crew members that escaped from the U.S.S. Bighorn were Gunneson, Novak, Park, Sonntag, Sanford, Pena and Manning. I'm assuming each had a separate role to play. Gunneson's is unknown as much was not known about him. He was the only one to respond to the signal being played, and is currently in a comatose state. Novak's job was to locate the alien artifact; he is also is custody. Park's was to find a way to broadcast the signal using human technology; he's dead. Sonntag's job was to genetically modify food to pass on the infection, using his blood as the agent to pass the mutation; he's dead. Sanford's job was to pass the mutation by means of sperm, using fertility clinics in order to infect rich women.

"We have no idea where Pena is; it isn't safe to assume anything about him. And on to Captain Manning, Manning is a former Navy Seal, and is experienced in gathering Naval Intelligence. We have reason to believe he is in the neighborhood. Is there any conjecture to what they are planning?" Molly finally asked.

There was silence for a moment before Lucas spoke up. "Since they communicate using dreams, wouldn't those that were infected afterwards have some part in the plan?"

They all froze. "That would make sense. Janklow tried to infect people by putting the signal in an e-mail and sending it..." muttered Cavennaugh.

"Karyn tried to infect people by playing the signal at a Miami Rave..." Fenway continued.

"Tollman and that plane full of political people were heading to Mexico..." Ramsey said.

"Sonntag's mother was protecting him, as well as Agent Hargrove." Caffrey said.

"Christine Polchek and Libby Drennan were sending money to Mexico. Then they would send money here..." J.T. mused... "What does this all mean?"

"Only time can tell..." Molly said.

----

Lucas groaned. For some reason he'd been having a headache for a couple of days. Making new restraints was only making it worse...

Ramsey came in the door with a beer in hand. "Want a cold one?"

"No, I got to get this done by tomorrow..." Lucas groaned, grabbing his head. "Man, I wish this headache would go away!"

"Maybe you should see Fenway about that," said Ramsey who took another sip from the beer.

Lucas glared at the dwarf. "I don't think so. I hate being poked and prodded. Plus, Fenway has a tendency of making headaches worse."

"Sarcasm can do that to you."

"Can't you go away while I try to get this done?"

Ramsey laughed. "Fine, I'll just find someone else to bother."

----

"Cavennaugh?" He looked up, seeing Molly.

"Yeah, Molly. What do you want?"

"What's wrong with you? You could have seriously hurt Fenway!"

He turned and glared at her. "Since when are you concerned about the doc? He can take of himself, and so can I." He turned and stalked out of the room.

Molly just stared at where he had stood; what was wrong with Cavennaugh?

----

Sometimes he thought the world was only made out of the conflagrations of his own mind. The only other dreams he had were those of the glass forest kind. Yet, even then the old dreams returned...

He could never get away from his past. He could never forget that day so long ago.

He was running again; "CYNTHIA! Hurry!"

She was running slightly behind him, her dark hair flowing in the wind, a worried expression on her face. "The others!"

"Don't worry about the-" and then nothing, as he felt pain ripping across his chest...

And then he woke.

----

The next day: 3:05 am

"Janklow, check. Reynolds, check. Novak, check. Sanford, check. Hargrave, check. Agent Harper, check. All prisoners are onboard and ready for transport, Caffrey."

"Thank you Cavennaugh," she spoke into her headset, looking a bit upset. "Are you going to stay with the escort?"

"Yes, I will be going to West Virginia with them. I will maintain radio silence other than to report position of convoy every fifteen minutes. Permission to begin transport?"

"Permission, granted."

----

"We're entering the International Bridge Tunnel, on 19th street."

Caffrey traced it on her map. "You guys are making good time already. Just how fast are you taking that big rig Cavennaugh?"

"Fast enough, Caffrey. Its going to take about seven hours to get to the location, so I want to get it over with. Radio silence, out."

Molly sighed... She just had a bad feeling about this.

----

Cavennaugh was in the lead hummer. He leaned back trying to relax. It was hard to try to be comfortable, but he needed to be.

Suddenly he heard the sound he had feared to hear; rapid fire. Automatic weapons, most likely submachine guns. He jumped up, grabbing out his own gun. "STOP THE VEHICLE!"

The hummer came to a stop and his men filed out, getting into position. He shouted into his headset; "Caffrey, we're under fire! They took out our vehicle from the back. Repeat, we're being ambushed!"

Caffrey swirled around and looked at Whitaker. "The prisoners are breaking free!"

"WHAT! Where at?"

"The International Bridge Tunnel. I don't know how they even knew..."

"That doesn't matter at the moment! MAKE sure they don't get away; tell Cavennaugh that!"

Molly could hear shots firing and shouts of men as they went down. "Cavennaugh, can you hear me! SEAN!"

"MOLLY, not right now!" Sean ripped the headset off his head, throwing it down as he took aim and fired at Novak.

"How did they get out!" One of Cavennaugh's men shouted at him. He shrugged.

"I don't have any idea, now shoot! Ask questions later!" Cavennaugh eye's widened when he finally saw a shadowy figure come into sight. "My god... Is that Manning!"

Hayes turned and looked, "Yeah, that's your captain you've been looking for!"

Hayes shouldn't have turned around... A bullet whizzed by and imbedding itself into his shoulder. The agents eyes widened momentarily before they closed...

"HAYES!" It was just like last time... The images crossed his mind, the blood, the screams... Everything falling apart, and nothing to make it better again... All Cavennaugh saw was red as he started firing.

----

Sean dropped his weapon, and picked up the headset. "Molly?"

"Cavennaugh! What happened!" he heard her voice come through the radio sounding small and insignificant. He closed his eyes and sighed.

"It was Manning... He ambushed us. He looked like he had a couple of hired mercenaries... I need a clean up crew here, quick."

"Did they escape?"

"Harper and Janklow did. Reynolds and Sanford were captured."

"What about Novak and Hargrove?"

"Dead. I had to shoot them, sorry Molly. There was a few fatalities on our side too. Agent Hayes was killed. Carl was shot as well, but he's fine for now. Sergeant Adams and I were the only ones not hurt."

"Alright, I'm sending in a team. Stay put Cavennaugh."

----

"We must recapture both Harper and Janklow. Harper knows too much, and so does that cadet!"

"Yes, I know, Whitaker. We have men scouring the entire area. Cavennaugh said they got away by car, so they may already be out of here!"

"How did those restraints fail!" the former senator yelled at her.

"I don't know! Lucas said-" she froze.

"He said wha-" then he realized it as well.

"Are you saying that he may be-?"

She nodded... "None of us three have been tested lately for the mutation. We haven't had time, I'll get Fenway on it right now." Whitaker grabbed her arm.

"I'll get Fenway, you stay here. You were exposed to the same tape. I'm taking no chances with this." He stalked out of the room and motioned for the guards to keep an eye on her. He returned with the doctor a few minutes later.

Fenway was looking ruffled to say the least. His normally spiky hair was in disarray, and he looked like he hadn't shaved yet. He stifled a yawn. "Was it really necessary to wake me up!"

"Just take her blood. Alright, doctor?"

"Fine, fine... Caffrey, arm please." He took out a syringe that he always seemed to have and took a sample. "You get to round up the other two, Whitaker. I'm going to the lab to check this." He left the room.

Whitaker turned and looked at her. "Until that result is back, I'm taking charge of Threshold." He left the room as well, and motioned for the guards to watch her once more.

She rested her head on the table; why did things seem to be escalating all of a sudden? "Can you give me some privacy?"

The guards nodded, leaving and shutting the door. She knew they were on the other side, but weren't watching her either. So it was safe to break down, which was exactly what she did.

She slipped off her dark jacket, and pulled down her hair. Letting her face rest against the cool table, she just let the tears flow down her face like an endless river...

----

Fenway was in his lab testing the three samples. He noticed something strange in one of them. "What?" he muttered to himself, "Lucas, no..."

He looked up from his microscope and removed his glasses from between his teeth. "CARPENTER!"

The browned haired lab tech came running, "What is it Dr. Fenway?"

"Get Caffrey, or Whitaker, Baylock for all I care. Just get whomever the hell is in charge at the moment."

"Okay, I'll go do that then." she said giving him a strange look as she left.

----

Whitaker came into the lab a few minutes later. "What is it?"

"Caffrey and Cavennaugh are cleared of the infection. Pegg isn't." Fenway motioned for the ex-senator to take a peek in the microscope. "As you can see the mutation has started to take over his cells. If you look closely, you'll see that the red blood cells have grew spikes like viruses do. That's one sign of the mutation. The DNA test is about to be through."

Whitaker looked into the microscope adjusting the sites to peer down at the alien cells. He looked up when he heard a printer start. "Is that the results?"

Fenway nodded, grabbing the papers. "He's turning. Its just started to happen too. If we get him here soon enough..."

"You might be able to save him?" Whitaker asked.

"Yes, Lucas is a prime candidate for the medicine I'm developing. I believe he's asleep in his lab at the moment."

Whitaker nodded. "Thank you doctor..." as he left the room.

----

Lucas was woke up by Caffrey and Whitaker. "Will you please come with us?" she asked him.

"Uh, yeah. What's wrong Dr. Caffrey?" he said as he yawned.

"Uhh... Nothing, Fenway just wanted to talk to you about something."

He noticed she was avoiding his eyes, like she was guilty of something. "Okay." He got up and followed them to the med-lab. The young man also noticed that there was guards posted everywhere along the halls. "You've stepped up security?"

"Yes, we had to Lucas." she seemed even more uncomfortable.

When he reached the lab, Fenway looked like he'd been through hell. "Lucas, I'd like you sit down please."

Lucas sat down, looking worried. "What's wrong Fenway?"

"If you'll excuse me..." Whitaker left the room quickly.

"Lucas, I'm sorry that I have to be the one that tells you this. The mutation has spread; you've tested positive for the triple helix."

"What! That's impossible! You said I was fine! Right? Did Ramsey put you up to this?"

Fenway shook his head. "I'm sorry, Lucas, this is for real. Now please lay back."

Lucas did as Fenway told him. "Why are you putting the restraints on me?"

"I'm so sorry, Lucas." Fenway sounded like he was about to break up.

"I'm going to have to confine you to the med-lab." Molly finally said.

Something clinched in Lucas' heart; they weren't kidding. It was really happening to him... "I'm going to be alright aren't I?"

Fenway avoided looking at him for a moment, then took a deep breath and looked him in the eye. "I don't know, Lucas. I just don't know. But I'll sure as hell try to fix this."

----

"We need to find the escapees." Molly was now speaking to the remaining members of the Red Team.

"Yeah, I got agents scouring Washington D.C. for them. Doesn't mean that they're going to find them." Cavennaugh muttered. "Its bad enough they infected Carl; hell it just sucks. He was one of my best men..."

"Yeah, but what about Lucas! Shouldn't we be more concerned about him!" demanded Ramsey.

"We are concerned, Ramsey. We just can't concentrate solely on him with two crewman on the loose and Janklow and Harper with them."

"We've got another thing to worry about as well. If Lucas is fully infected, whose going to replace him"  
Baylock asked.

"DON'T EVEN SAY THAT!" Ramsey yelled . "You guys talk like he's already gone and died!"

"Calm down Ramsey!" Cavennaugh growled.

"No! I'm not calming down on this one! He's our friend! And you guys seem to already have forgotten him! I'm going. I need some time alone!" Ramsey got up and left the table, brushing past Roberts on his way out, giving the MIT graduate a withering look.

"You called, Dr. Caffrey?"

"We need you to take Lucas' place for now. Can you do that?"

He nodded, sitting down.

"The strange thing about the whole ambush was that there seemed to be mercenaries..." muttered Cavennaugh.

The young man looked up, seeming slightly nervous. "How would an alien infectee get mercenaries?"

"I don't know. But he had them..."

----

Lucas was laying there, just staring at the ceiling. "I never thought this could happen to me, Fenway. Never thought it at all... You know its just a month before my wedding? I managed to rearrange everything, and move it all to here." He laughed. "Rachel even changed her dress choice. She found a Vera Wang dress she liked better, and Molly found some money in the budget and gave it to me. I was going to invite you guys."

"I know, Lucas. I know." Fenway was sitting there, holding a wet cloth to the young man's forehead. Hell, the kid was like a son to him. And here he was, dying...

He started to seize again. Fenway moved quickly and injected something into the IV. Lucas drifted into the dreamworld... Into a world with trees made of glass...

----

"They traced the bullets. They were fired from a couple of Socimi Type 821, and the guns that fired the bullets were traced to a particular few guns used in a robbery in Italy five years ago. They were confiscated and put into storage, where the authorities were going to get rid of them. However, they were stolen before the authorities could melt them down."

Molly nodded. "Is there anything else?"

Cavennaugh nodded. "I looked around. The only arms dealer I could find actually lives here in D.C. We could pay him a visit and see if he'll cough up anymore information."

She agreed. "Oh, and Cavennaugh? Is everything all right now?"

The man paused and turned; he came into her office and sat down. "Molly can we talk?"

She nodded in reply. "Is it about what's been bothering you lately?"

"Yeah... You remember that old scar I have?"

She remembered. "Yeah, Fenway was commenting on it when I came in to find out if we were all okay. Wasn't it right after we got back from the Bighorn?"

"Well, way back long ago, right after I got my first command... I've always been involved in this branch of the military, always in the dark waters. My first command, well, hell I lost it. All of my men, save one, were killed."

She sighed. "I figured it was something like that." She laid her hand on his arm. "Its alright, I understand."

He looked slightly uncomfortable for a moment before he got up. "I'll just be going to stir up some info from that dealer..."

----

Cavennaugh came back a few hours later. "I talked to the arms dealer. He told me a man dressed in a maintenance suit came to see him with large amounts of cash... Typically the amount was just under 9,000. Sound familiar? Except it wasn't Sanford, it was Pena."

"How do you know?"

"I showed him pictures. He was sort of uncooperative at first... But he loosened up a bit real quick."

Whitaker threw him a look. "You didn't do anything illegal did you!"

Cavennaugh shrugged. "That's the good thing about being in dark waters."

Molly shook her head. "Cavennaugh, can we keep the illegal activity down to a minimum please?"

He nodded. "Well, the man is supposed to make a drop off of more cash. I don't know where he's getting this batch of money from, but he's supposed to make it tonight. I say we stake out the place, and capture Pena."

Molly agreed and got up. "I'm coming with you."

----

"I'm not sure he was telling you the truth; he looks shady to me."

"Arms dealers are always shady, Caffrey, come on... Let's go into that house and wait."

She shook her head "I want to go into that one," she said, pointing at the house beside it.

"Suit yourself." Cavennaugh shrugged. He motioned for a couple of the men to follow her as he entered the other house.

----

"Will you guys tell Rachel I love her?"

"She knows, Lucas. You know that." said Fenway who was still sitting beside his patient. The doctor hadn't moved since Lucas had been there.

"Yeah, but I want to see her... I miss her." the young man croaked out.

Fenway nodded. "I'll ask Caffrey for you when she gets back."

----

The guys weren't far behind her as Molly moved in the house quietly, her gun held out before her. Pena was here, she just knew it... Cavennaugh was inspecting another house. She had decided to explore this one. For some reason, she knew she was right... Call it a gut feeling, or a hunch, or whatever. Molly knew he was here though; the arms dealer was lying. She pointed to the way upstairs and the two guards started up that way.

A moment or two later she heard movement to the left. She swung the gun forward quickly. "STOP, PENA!"

He froze and started in the muzzle of the gun. "Hello, Caffrey."

She didn't move as she stared into his eyes. "Don't make a move."

He just smiled before suddenly jumping at her. She tumbled as he collided with her. The gun was knocked from her hands, and he placed his hands on her throat. "Please, stop..." she breathed out.

"You're one of us, and you know it. Can't you tell? You'll soon join us, I know it. Just like your friend, Lucas. I won't kill you, I'll make you better." She kicked him, trying to get him off of her...

"I'm not one of you... I like being who I am now!" She heard a footstep. 'Oh no, please tell me that's not Manning!'

She closed her eyes, thinking it was all over... She heard a gun fire, and felt Pena fall over. Molly rolled off the floor and looked down... Pena was gone... She turned and stared at Cavennaugh, her mouth hanging open slightly. Her jacket was stained with the blood of the crewman.

"Come on Molly, let's get you that change of clothing."

----

Ramsey was drinking and drinking... More and more... He couldn't do this anymore. Lucas was his friend and he couldn't even look him in the eye; he wouldn't even set foot in the med-lab. He lifted the bottle and found it empty and grabbed another one, starting to chug it desperately.

He couldn't run from his problems, but he could forget them for awhile. He started to choke; it was to much. He started to retch; it was an awful feeling to fall asleep in a puddle of one's own vomit...

----

Roberts was walking quietly in the hall, trying to be inconspicious as possible. It wouldn't due to be seen at the moment, or to be noticed. So he walked quietly and strived to appear normal. He smiled at the guards as he walked past.

----

"Yeah, I'll talk to Ramsey for you, now let's get back on the subject of how you had this reaction." Fenway was talking to Lucas. "So have you changed your routine recently? Anything you've done different?"

"The only thing that's changed is Roberts being here, that's all I can think of."

Fenway looked down at his young patient. "Roberts? Did he bring you your food or anything?"

"Yeah, he brings me my coffee. Half-caff. you know, because you told me to lay off the caffeine."

Fenway got that look in his eyes. "Aw... Shit." he muttered as he rushed out the door. He grabbed one of the guards. "Come with me!"

----

"Roberts!" the young man turned to see Fenway with one of those guards.

"Yes, Dr. Fenway?" he said trying not to edge away from the older man.

"Get him." the guard made a grab for Roberts, whom dodged and started to run down the abandoned halls.

Fenway and the guard tore after him. The guard panted out, "Why exactly are we chasing him!"

"I think he was the one that put Lucas in the med-lab. Now catch him!"

Roberts ran directly into what felt like a brick wall; he looked up and saw Cavennaugh.

"Now what do we have here?" the large man asked. "Fenway why the hell are you actually getting exercise?" the young man tried to run at that moment. Sean just grabbed him by his collar.

"I think he's the one that made Lucas sick." Fenway managed to get out, "And I'm not out of shape..."

Cavennaugh rose a eyebrow out of the obviously lying doctor. "Put Lucas in the med-lab? Hmmm... OUCH!" he yelped and accidently let the man go when Roberts chopped down on him arm.

The young man tore down the hall, trying to get away.

"You just had to drop him, didn't you?" Fenway muttered, glaring at the soldier.

"He bit me! That little son of a bitch, he's gonna die..." Cavennaugh tore after him.

"I'm living in a circus." muttered Fenway.

The young man realized he couldn't get out; he stopped in his tracks and turned. "You can't stop the Apocrypha, and you never will!" he shouted before reaching into his pocket and taking something out.

"STOP him!" shouted Fenway, but no one was close enough.

Roberts swallowed the pill, and gagged before his eyes rolled into his head as he passed out... He managed one more word, "Apocrypha..."

----

Fenway was looking down at the dwarf whom was laying in his own puddle of barf. It sort of reminded him of his college days...

"Ramsey! Ramsey, for pity's sake wake up!" he nudged the younger man with his foot unwilling to touch the vomit.

"Uhh... What?" Ramsey groaned trying to sit up.

Fenway rolled his eyes and sat down away from the vomit. "We need to talk."

"I don't wanna hear any self-righteous bullshit about how drinking and gambling is bad for you. Go away Fenway..."

"Hey, are you listening to me?" the doctor poked him again. "Wake up, sit up, and get out of the puddle of your own vomit!"

Ramsey sat up and moved slightly. "Why haven't you left yet!"

"I'm not leaving I'm sitting here and we're going to have a nice long talk." Fenway smirked at him, "Okay?"

"No, its not okay. Aren't you supposed to be watching Lucas?"

"Lucas was the one that told me to come and hunt you down and drag you out of your own vomit. Now we're talking."

"No we're not." Ramsey tried to get up and stand, but he couldn't even do that so he settled just for sitting there. He glared at Fenway, "And since when have you became Caffrey's lap dog?"

Fenway made a face. "I haven't become anyone's 'lap dog', I've just realized she's right on a couple of things. But we're not here to talk about her are we?"

"You never go away do you? No wonder you've been divorced three times. Now dude, go away..." Ramsey started to look green. Fenway rolled his eyes once more.

"Example one, drinking too much induces vomiting when one wakes up..."

----

"So do you have any information on this Apocrypha he mentioned?" J.T. said, "And is Lucas going to make it?"

"We haven't been able to find any information on what he meant. He could have meant those books that some think belong in the Bible for all we know." Caffrey spoke up.

"I don't know yet if Lucas is going to be fine. I won't know for awhile... I might know by next week." Fenway said.

"How about Ramsey?" asked Cavennaugh, "Have you talked to him Fenway?"

Fenway nodded. "Yeah, I talked to him. He agreed to stop the drinking for awhile..."

"Good."

----

The phone was ringing in Molly's ear.

She opened her eyes slightly and made a grab for it. "Yes? What is it?" she stifled a unseemly yawn and sat up.

It was Fenway. "Molly?"

She really sat up. "What's wrong!"

"There's been an outbreak, here in Washington D.C."

to be continued... 


	2. Escalation

Disclaimer: I do not own Threshold, and if I did, it would still be in production. Please see author's note in my profile for more information.

Beta'd by memorial-ETHOS. Note: "I've corrected, to my own knowledge, her grammar. The majority of the story is left intact to it's original version."

Last time...

The phone was ringing in Molly's ears. She opened her eyes slightly and made a grab for it. "Yes? What is it?" she stifled an unseemly yawn and sat up.

It was Fenway. "Molly?"

She really sat up. "What's wrong!"

"There's been an outbreak here in Washington D.C."

---

Chapter two: Escalation

Molly drove like mad, trying to get back to Washington D.C. It was a four hour commute from where she lived in Richmond, Virginia.

The moment she was in the car, she grabbed her cell phone. "What do you mean there's an outbreak! Fenway, what the hell is happening?"

"Listen, we got containment out already. It was food, Caffrey. They got into our food supply."

"What was it? Is it going to go national?"

"No, the district was the first to be supplied with the product. Personally, I think its just a case of product tampering. Not genetic engineering, but Cavennaugh's got people stopping the trucks just in case."

"What product was it?"

"I'm not sure about that yet. I've got it narrowed down to three products, but I'm betting it's a new type of strawberry flavored milk."

"Why do you say that?"

"Its not a very nice shade of pink; more of a brilliant red..."

Molly made a face. "You've got to be kidding me! That's gross. I'll call you back for an update when I get closer."

She hung up the cell and mashed down on the gas; it was going to be a long night.

----

Caffrey pulled into the parking garage and rushed out. She met the rest of the team in the doorway. "Has this gotten out yet?"

"No. I managed to make it sound like there was a bad batch of strawberry milk and made sure there was a product recall." said Cavennaugh.

"How many were infected? And how much of that product was sold in the district's stores? Was all of it tampered with?"

"Fifteen people were infected that we know of, and not that much of the product was sold. Not that many people over the age of 11 drink strawberry milk; remember, it wouldn't infect the children. All of the product was tampered with. That's my guess from what I've tested so far." said Fenway.

She nodded. "So there's a product recall in effect. How much of it has been tracked down, and what excuse are we using for getting ahold of the infected milk?"

They all turned to Fenway who just shrugged. "Listen, I'm not that type of doctor!"

"Dude, you're a pathologist aren't you? Think of something!" Ramsey said, rolling his eyes.

"Give me a second... I have to remember college." Fenway rubbed his chin and closed his eyes. "AHA! An outbreak of Q Fever! Perfect. Its even got flu-like symptoms."

"Uh, do we want flu-like symptoms? Its not like the infected are walking around vomiting everywhere, Fenway."

Fenway glared at the muscle man. "Cavennaugh, it's the only one I can think of right now. And once you think about a body rejecting the infection has some flu-like symptoms, fever... confusion..."

"I get the point." said Molly. "Won't the kids that come in contact with the mutation end up like Tate? You know, sort of infected like Cavennaugh and me?"

Fenway nodded. "They might. Tate was exposed for a prolonged period of time to the artifact... I don't know about ingesting the mutation though. They might end up like you guys or they might not." He shrugged.

----

Four hours later

Fenway was examining the strawberry flavored milk; a look of scorn crossed his face. He just hated that stuff. It was nasty as hell. It being infected just made it worse.

Lucas looked up. "Hey doc, what's been happening of late?"

Fenway smiled. "We've got an outbreak, Lucas. How are you feeling?"

Lucas tried to shrug. "Ah... I know this a lot to ask, but I miss Rachel. Can Caffrey bring her here? Please?"

Fenway blinked. "Um... Lucas, you know that's not allowed. You'll have to take it up with Caffrey, not me."

The boy nodded. "I don't blame you."

"That's nice to know. Now why don't you just rest some more?"

The young man nodded before drifting back into his feverish sleep.

Fenway returned back to his study of tampering with milk. He was way over his head on this one...

----

"I'm sorry Caffrey, but if they make the move to go for genetic engineering... I won't be able to help."

She nodded. "I already knew that genetic engineering wasn't your strong point due to the fact that when you went to college there wasn't much of it around. I planned for something like this and selected a genetic engineer to sometimes consult. Her name is Daphne Larson."

His eyes widened. "Her? How are you going to pull this one off? She's a multi-millionaire."

Caffrey stared at him for a second before shaking her head. "Its easy; we're doing the same thing we did you guys."

Ramsey shook his head. "You mean you're going to pull off another abduction? Isn't this getting a bit ironic, Caffrey? You're plan is supposed to stop alien's from abducting us all, and here you are just plucking us off the street."

She glared at the dwarf. "I selected each and every one of you because of your expertises in your fields of study. Not because I wanted to abduct you all; if I wanted to do that I would have selected better company." She left the men with her chin raised.

"What's crawled up he-"

"Complete that sentence and I'll kill you." Cavennaugh growled.

Ramsey rose his hands in defeat. "Whoa, big guy calm down... Simmer down, boy..." he said backing off.

----

Fenway was looking down at his fifteen new patients. "Its an elective treatment. This branch of medicine isn't even a month old, and it may be dangerous to your health."

"What are the side effects, doc?" one of the recently, but not completely, infected asked.

"Seizures, fever, hallucination, death..." Fenway listed.

They all looked at each other, their eyes wide. "Uh... What's the other choice?"

"The other choice is to become something you are not. You will not care about anyone or anything other then accomplishing your goals of making the human race better. You will not actually be making anything better. Instead, you would be propagating a 'signal' for Al Qaeda. The side effect of that choice is that you may die anyways."

They all stared at him. "Are you saying some damn terrorist did this to us?"

He nodded. "Yes, Osama has came back and bit you in the ass. It's your choice, of course. If you select the medicine and are cured and released, you can never talk about it. If you choose to become infected and live, well, you will live in a secret facility for the rest of your life. Or until we find a cure for the infection."

They exchanged looks with each other until one of them spoke up. "I'll try it out!" The rest nodded. Fenway started to administer the drug he had created.

----

"Hey, Caffrey! Have a moment?"

She turned around and saw Fenway. "What's happened now?"

"Nothing. Everything's fine. It's Lucas. He wants to talk with Rachel."

Molly blinked. "He knows I can't allow that..."

"He actually wants to see her, Caffrey. She's his fiancee. I think you need to consider it, just to keep his morale up."

She nodded. "I'll think about it. No guarantees though..."

----

She walked down the hall, her dark hair swinging in the motion of her grate. The dark haired woman made her way further down into where the elders met. "There was a report from the capital. They began the first part of the plan."

An older man with dark curls that were turning gray turned and looked up at her. he nodded. "Send the signal for the next phase. I wonder... I hope she will finally join us."

The young woman nodded. "She'll understand, won't she?"

"I hope she'll understand why I left, but if she doesn't..." he shrugged. "Now be a dear and send that."

"Yes, father." The young woman left the room to send the message for the next step of the plan. She paused in the hall, and entered an over look of the main chamber. A cavern that housed the underground city, her home for the past thirty years... She looked down upon the city with its hundreds of citizens, those that were chosen, those that were blessed, and those that were partly blessed. She smiled while watching the people; soon there would be more to join the home of the Blessed.

----

Molly walked into Baylock's office and sat down. "J.T.?"

He looked up. "What is it Caffrey?"

"Its Lucas. He wants to see Rachel... I'm not sure what to do."

He sighed. "Its up to you Caffrey. We can't take Lucas out of the building, so she'd have to be brought here. If we do that, she would have to join Threshold."

Molly shook her head. "I don't think Lucas would appreciate that. I'll think about it."

----

Fenway was humming to an old Beatles song when Lucas woke up.

"What are you humming?" the young man asked.

"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Damn music was good then..." the doctor mused.

Lucas made a face. "What's my latest Fenway?"

Fenway went over to him and picked up the chart. "Your stats are getting better... I don't know though. I'm going to keep you for awhile more. We can't tell with this mutation."

Lucas groaned. "What about Rachel?"

Fenway avoided the young man's eye, "Umm... I took it to Caffrey and for now the answer is no."

"What! I want to talk to her at least!"

Fenway shook his head. "I'm sorry but that's protocols."

"Since when did you play by the rules!"

"Since I found out that breaking them has consequences. Listen Lucas, you don't want Rachel involved in this. Just being a member of the red team is dangerous, and Caffrey's rules are correct. Don't break them like I did. I found out the hard way." Fenway turned away and walked out the door, his shoulders slumped.

----

The woman entered another room. "The elders have agreed. Phase two of the plan is to commence."

The man standing in the shadows turned. A slight smile lit his strong face. "I'll tell the others to begin, then. Tell your father that he will soon join us in this fight."

The woman nodded before turning to leave. She paused when he spoke again.

"You're only a half-blessed aren't you?"

She turned back around. "Yes sir, I'm not of age yet."

He nodded. "Ah, I see. That may change soon if you wish it to."

She smiled. "That would be nice." The woman then left the room.

Mannings stood there, and rubbed his chin. These people were strange, but of course most cults were.

----

Fenway was humming to himself again, now standing on the roof of the Threshold building. He could see forever from here. he hummed the song he had danced to at his first wedding. Nigel stopped when he realized he was doing it again. Hell it'd been years since he'd thought about that song. It was ironic that his favorite song shared its name with his first wife, Lucy.

He chuckled. maybe he wasn't so old after all... Lately it seemed he felt so young.

The doctor looked up at the stars. Hell, he had joined NASA just for them. That was foolish, considering he got car sick just from reading in a moving vehicle. It had all been worth it though. he was here now. Wasn't he?

The stars were calling him again, as was Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.

----

Harper entered the store. he walked along the aisle appearing as normal as possible. A young woman accidently brushed against him. "Oh I am so sorry," he said. She looked up and he smiled. She nodded, going on her own way, but there was a slight recognition in her eyes. She shook her head as she went on; he breathed a sigh of relief.

So far so good. He finally found what he was looking for; the canned food aisle. He took a few items from his jacket after checking to see if anyone was looking or if there was cameras. Of course there were none in this aisle. It wouldn't be worth the price of the tape, considering the price of canned foods.

He took out the green bean cans and stuck them in front of the other cans. They would be snapped up first because they weren't dented and they looked new.

On the way out he picked up a few groceries and stood in line for a few moments. The cashier, another pretty, young woman, smiled at him as she rang up his purchases. He soon left, but the woman didn't forget his face.

----

The man walked down the aisles, reading the list as he went. "Milk, check." he muttered to himself. He squinted to read his wive's handwriting. When he realized that there was no way he could read the chicken scratch, he called his wife on his cell. "Honey, what's on your list after milk?"

His wife, whom was on bed rest, laughed. "Still can't read my lists after all these years?"

"Uh-huh. Sorry, hon."

"Its canned foods, green beans, peas, corn, and the such. Just pick up cans that aren't dented this time. Alright?"

"Okay. I'll do so. Love ya, see you tonight." He hung up his phone and went to do the rest of the shopping.

----

"I think we got another outbreak!" Ramsey shouted running into Fenway's lab.

Fenway's head shot up; he'd been napping again on the job. "Huh? What?"

"There's an outbreak, Fenway, you're up."

Fenway sat up and stretched his back, creaking. "An outbreak? Another one?"

"Uh-huh. Come on old dude. You got a job to do."

"Where was the outbreak this time?"

"Here again. There were thirteen infected this time; that includes another pregnant woman."

"Another one! How was it passed this time?"

"Cans of green beans. This time it's genetically modified."

"The infected blood while the plant is growing again?"

"Yeah, just like Sonntag did."

"How do you know all this?" Fenway asked.

"Because Daphne Larson is here; Caffrey abducted her."

Fenway rolled his eyes as he strolled down the corridor with Ramsey. He entered the main meeting room seeing Caffrey talking to a slender brunette.

"Doctor Fenway, this is Doctor Larson. She'll be joining you on the medical aspects of Threshold for a little bit."

They shook hands as politely as possible. "We've met." Daphne said coldly.

Caffrey looked confused then shook her head, "Never mind, I don't want to know..." She walked out of the room and called over her shoulder, "If you're acquainted go on and get to work then."

----

"I still don't agree with your views on genetics, Larson. This is solid proof of why I don't share those ideas."

She scoffed at him. "Just because you're afraid of something doesn't mean you shouldn't experiment with it. These studies have made me a fortune because I have the guts to explore them, despite people's concerns. Otherwise I have studied this subject extensively."

Fenway snorted, "Yeah, whatever. At least when I go to bed at night, I know what I've done is right."

She glared at him. "Are we going to argue the whole time?"

He nodded. "Yes, we are. And for once I get the enjoyable experience to be the one briefing you."

"You don't need to. Caffrey gave me the info already."

Fenway growled. "Of course she did..."

----

Cavennaugh entered the local grocery store where the cans of beans had been purchased. He walked up to a young woman surrounded by cops. "You're the cashier that was manning the store? Did you see any of these men?" He handed her a few pictures of Captain Manning, Harper, and Janklow.

She studied the photos for a minute. "I think I saw him." She pointed down at Harper.

He nodded. "Where's the canned food aisle?"

The confused cashier pointed to the aisle. "What's all the fuss about?"

"Nothing madam. He's just got a warrant out for him." Cavennaugh walked back there, motioning for one of the cops to follow him. When they reached the green beans he said quietly. "I want every can in this store pulled off the shelves and put into the big rig I got out in the parking lot. Any questions?"

The poor cop nodded. "Uh- yeah, I got several."

Cavennaugh glared and pulled out his wallet. he yanked out his Homeland Security clearance and handed it to the doubtful man. "All of them answered now?"

The man nodded rushing to do what he was told. As Cavennaugh left, he shouted over his shoulder. "Pull all the surveillance tapes as well!"

----

Fenway and Larson spent the next several hours alone in a lab together, trying not to kill each other while inspecting several hundred cans of food.

Lucas watched in amusement from his bed, ever so often snickering at the poor doctors. "Why do you two have to test every single one of those cans?"

"Because J.T. is a sadist, that's why." Fenway muttered as he opened up yet another can of corn.

Larson rolled her eyes. "I thought this was going to more action filled. You know, the exciting world of genetic engineering. Instead I have to open up a hundred cans of nasty bargain food..." She sighed.

"It could be worse..." Fenway muttered.

"How can it be any worse then this!"

"We could be shot at, infected, abducted... Need I go on?"

She rolled her eyes. "Pessimist."

"Optimist."

Lucas was watching the two growl at each other. "You two didn't have a relationship or anything did you?"

"NO!" they both shouted; they sounded disgusted at that idea.

"Then why are you two arguing the whole time? Can't we all get along? You know, let's be happy!"

"Are you sure he's alright?" she said pointing at the young man.

"Oh. He's going to be like this for awhile. He's hopped up on drugs."

"That explains that." she said shuttering.

"No it doesn't. He's like that normally."

Her face blanched. "You're not serious, are you!"

----

Meanwhile, across town...

Cavennaugh was looking at a list, and it had nothing to do with who had been naughty or nice. Well, in a way maybe it did. It was the list of the people who had bought infected green beans. Not a nice list to be on at all. Twelve people had been crossed off that list, but one remained. It was his job to find the last infectee. Oh what joys of a job did J.T. manage to give him.

Currently he was walking where the young man had last been seen. It seemed to be some sort of open park area; the agent made a face. It was nice and sunny and full of cheer. Not his sort of thing at all.

Sean walked along the asphalt walks. it wasn't his sort of park at all. This park didn't have many trees. in face it just seemed to be a wide open area with lots of people in it. It was sort of like an open fairground, a place where people could congregate.

He looked back down at his picture. Nope, he hadn't seen the young man yet. He continued to walk on the steamy asphalt; it had just finished raining a hour ago. Sean looked up once more, and he saw someone familiar.

It was the possible infectee. The young man raised his head when he sensed Cavennaugh's presence. The young buck took off running, weaving through the crowd. "STOP!" Cavennaugh yelled after him before giving chase. He didn't want to risk killing the young man if he wasn't infected... He looked everywhere for a buffer to stop the shock bullets. The young man was running through a puddle of water. Cavennaugh took quick aim and fired.

The electricity pulsed throughout the water, and went into the young man. A shock just strong enough to knock him out, but not hurt him. Cavennaugh spoke into this headset. "Target acquired."

----

"That's it, we're done!" Daphne said happily.

Fenway leaned back in his chair and sighed constantly. "We can sleep!"

"No you can't." said J.T., coming in the lab with more samples of food. "We just got news of another outbreak.

Fenway and Daphne stared at the portly older man. They shook their heads, backing away from him. "Don't you even think about it. We haven't had any sleep all night. Can't you get someone else to inspect food items?" Fenway growled.

Lucas called from his bed. "Sleep is for the weak!"

Fenway twitched. He was about to say something when he decided just to bite his tongue. "Okay. J.T. if you want this batch done you have to promise me I can get some sleep in the next hour or two. Otherwise I'm going on strike."

J.T. glared at the doctors. "Are you both planning a coup d'état ?"

The doctors glared back at him, their arms crossed. "What if we are?"

"You know I could have both of you thrown in the holding cell... But then you'd get sleep. Wouldn't you? Luttwak would be proud. Alright, examine this batch then get some rest." He put the items down with a couple of files before leaving.

Fenway walked over to them, and lifted the files. "Hmm... Seems like it was a larger outbreak this time. Twenty possible infectees. All items already recovered. I wonder how they figured out it was the corn this time?"

She walked over to the cans as well, and popped one open. "Hmm... I wonder why; could it be that it has an orange cast to it?"

"Charming. And marked as a thanksgiving brand. How sweet of our alien friends to make our holidays more colorful with orange, genetically-modified corn. Why the hell would anyone eat this stuff!" he said as he sniffed it.

She shrugged. "Let's confirm it."

----

The dark-haired woman was walking once more. She was sure nothing good could come from this. "Father, we haven't put enough development into this. This is happening too fast. Without the proper precautions, it might backfire on us."

"I don't care. The chosen have requested it. Thus we do it. That is all that really matters. They know what they're doing."

She turned to look up at her father. "Have you ever considered they just might be wrong? Its not ready yet. I've oversaw the progress for the past two months. Trust me on this."

He rounded on her, glaring. "We've awaited the coming of the Chosen for the past three hundred years! We cannot mess this up; we must do what they say."

She took in a breath. "We must take the proper precautions; otherwise everything we have done will be wasted. This plant is harder to modify. It's taking more time because its more complex. We shouldn't have to move this fast..."

He raised a hand. "No more of this treachery. Get back to your lab!"

She hung her head, raven locks falling into her face. "Yes, father." she said, dejected. She then headed for her lab...

----

"We've got to catch Harper if we're going to put a stop to this!" Cavennaugh growled at Whitaker.

"Well, what's more important? Tracking down all the new infectees or tracking down the vector?" Whitaker demanded. "If you think about it, Cavennaugh, the new ones are taking orders now. Just because of sheer numbers they're more of a priority to detain!"

Cavennaugh twitched. "Well, if we don't stop Harper soon there will be even more of them!"

Both men stared each other down; neither gave up. Caffrey coughed lightly. "How about we compromise?"

"Yes Caffrey? What do you have in mind?"

"Send two teams; one to gather infectees, the other to find Harper. His last known location was that grocery store where the cashier identified him. Find him and the infection stops in its tracks, and then we can all rest..." she said longingly.

Whitaker nodded. "Go ahead then, find Harper..."

----

The woman entered the parking garage and started the car. It was now time to head to the lab. She drove for several miles, admiring the scenery. Soon these lands would be occupied by forests of glass. She sighed at that thought. She could just imagine the sound of a forest made of crystal. It would literally resonate with pings. For some odd reason she had always had a fondness for glass. She soon arrived at the green houses, parked her hybrid and entered the building.

In the doorway she reached out and touched the wall. The glass was unusually warm for this season. Typically, it would be bitter cold but it was a warm winter.

She smiled at the feel of the glass; its smoothness put her at ease as she walked in. "What are the latest results for plants?"

"They're not growing as fast as we would want. I recommend waiting, madam."

She nodded. "As I thought. They are just more complex, are they not?"

The worker nodded. "We cannot keep up with their needs. Its just not possible..."

She sighed. "Very well, continue. Just try to hurry it up a bit, even take a few shortcuts if necessary."

He nodded, then turned and left.

----

Caffrey and Cavennaugh were sitting at a table looking at a map. "Alright, this is the area where he was last seen."

She nodded. "We've got to remember that they have the tendency to disappear on us like Gunneson did..."

"Oh, great! I forgot about that." Cavennaugh rubbed his head, looking miserable. "There's no way we're going to catch him like this, is there?"

She shook her head. "May-"

She was cut off by Ramsey who had came running into the room. "Another outbreak! Its real big this time!"

"How big!"

"At least three hundred!"

"How exactly did they do this?"

"Apparently our friends have upgraded from simple product tampering and placing items on shelves. Either they hijacked a truck and injected the products with the mutation, or they've got their own company."

Cavennaugh and Caffrey exchanged looks. "Dare we ask what product was it this time?"

"Bread. Simple bread."

----

Fenway was shook. "Huh?" he said sleepily. "What is it now?" he muttered, stifling a yawn.

He saw Cavennaugh. "Another outbreak, Fenway. You gotta get up and do your doctor stuff."

"Then why didn't you wake up the other doctor! Let me sleep!" He glanced at his watch. "I HAVEN'T EVEN GOTTEN THREE HOURS OF SLEEP!" he shouted at the poor, secret agent man.

"Not my problem. It will be though if YOU KEEP SHOUTING IN MY EAR!"

"What's going on?" two voices chorused.

"Lucas, go back to bed! Daphne, we've got work. Again." He turned back to Cavennaugh. "Now what was the outbreak this time?"

"Three hundred people have been infected by Harpy PA Co. bread."

Fenway's mouth hung open. "Are you serious? Three hundred?" he sighed. "Let's get to work then..."

----

"Fenway, I need answers quick!" growled J.T.

The doctor glared at him before continuing. "My guess would be that it is the company. Just because the wheat was genetically modified, it was not injected with the mutation."

Ramsey rolled his eyes. "I could have told you that in a moment... The company name is an anagram for Apocrypha."

They all turned and looked at him. "WHAT!" he growled at them. "That's what I'm for aren't I? Hello? Remember me the, linguist?"

"Sorry Ramsey, we should have asked you." Caffrey said consolingly. "So there is a company out there, somewhere, that is with the infectees? That doesn't make sense..." She put her head in her hands.

"Yeah it does, Roberts acted like he really believed in that word." said Fenway. "He almost said it with a reverence, like a religion alm- Oh shit."

"What is it Fenway?"

"Almost like a cult..."

They all sat up straight, their eyes wide in disbelief. Caffrey's mouth fell open. "A cult, that knows about the aliens?"

"THAT ACTUALLY WANTS TO GET INFECTED!" Ramsey stuttered.

"Why am I not surprised..." muttered Daphne... "I get drafted into this to deal with psychos. Figures."

----

Ramsey's fingers were flying across the keyboard. "This might take awhile to find this company. It should be a legitimate company. At least that's what it looks like to me..."

"But if its legitimate, how did it get past the FDA? Its not like they let people sell bread that can make you into an alien..." Cavennaugh muttered.

"Well, I don't think bread is the FDA's top priority... Well, as long as all the ingredients are labeled correctly that is."

A result suddenly popped up. "Here we go, Harpy PA Co." He read out the summary on the front page: "To make the world a different place, using science to better humanity. To take the has-beens of the past, and renew them for the future..."

Cavennaugh rose an eyebrow. "You've got to be joking. This is too good to be true..."

"Hmm... Its even got an address!" Ramsey said pointing at something on the screen. "Worth looking at, muscle man?"

"Yeah, it looks worth seeing into..."

----

"So you guys have tracked down the company to Pennsylvania? And you plan to take a trip there?" asked Fenway.

"Yes," said Caffrey. "And we want you and Daphne to come along."

"With guns? And shooting? And violence? And bullets flying all over the place?" said Fenway, sounding distressed.

"Yes." said Cavennaugh. "That's exactly where we want you two to go."

"NO!" they chorused at the same time. "No way in hell!"

"You guys really have no choice. You're both going one way or another."

----

Two hours later they were on their way to Harpy, Pennsylvania. Fenway was trying to figure out how to hold his gun, which thankfully wasn't yet loaded due to Cavennaugh's quick thinking. "So you pull the trigger?"

Cavennaugh looked like he wanted to bang his head on the steering wheel. "YES! You point the gun at the bad guy and pull the trigger! Simple isn't it!"

"No!" both doctors said at the same time.

"Fenway, you seriously haven't ever held a gun!"

"No, I've never held a gun. I'm a doctor; its not my job to kill people. My job is to help people get better, not send them to a hospital in the first place."

Daphne nodded. "I agree with him! Do we really have to do this?"

"YES!" Caffrey and Cavennaugh said at the same time. "Great, we're turning into them!" growled Sean.

"Listen, we need you two! We can't tell if food is being genetically modified or not!" Caffrey said.

----

They were sneaking around premises in the dark. Fenway was one grumpy doctor, and so was Larson. It wasn't everyday that they played secret agent man, and neither of them liked it.

"There's nothing here except empty buildings!" growled Fenway.

"There has to be something here!" Cavennaugh muttered.

"This is creepy!" whispered Daphne.

Fenway nodded. "Yeah, it is..."

They explored the grounds, not knowing they were being watched...

----

They finally decided to wait and see if anyone came into an abandoned parking garage. They sat there quietly in the dark, waiting for something... anything... Daphne and Fenway had dozed off where they were sitting, and Molly was close to doing so as well.

Cavennaugh heard something coming. He poked Molly as he saw headlights appear from around the corner. The hybrid parked and a man got out. Cavennaugh quietly snuck behind the man and grabbed him. The man struggled for only a few moments before realizing the futility of trying to get away.

They drug the man into the SUV. Caffrey hopped into the driver's seat and really took off. Fenway and Daphne just watched, eyes wide, as Cavennaugh started to interrogate the poor man.

"Where is Apocrypha hiding!" He shoved the barrel of his gun to the terrified man's stomach.

The man stuttered, "I- I don't know what you're talking about!"

Fenway rolled his eyes. "Wrong thing to say, buddy. That just sets him off..."

Cavennaugh now shoved the gun into the man stomach, hard. "Stop messing around!"

"Ok-kay... Ummm... Its down the road! That way!" The man pointed down the road.

----

They pulled into the parking lot in front of the green house a few minutes later. "This better not be a trick!" growled Cavennaugh who was doing his best to look intimidating.

"I- It's not!"

Fenway rose an eyebrow and exchanged looks with Larson. "Can we stay out here, perhaps?"

Cavennaugh nodded. "Caffrey, you stay too!"

----

He entered into the darkened greenhouse; greenery was everywhere. He felt the warm moist air hit his face as he entered. Sean looked around, while waiting for his eyes to adjust to the night. After several minutes of surveilling the area, his eyes were finally adjusted. Sean started to walk quietly. He put his feet down as carefully as possible. Each time he moved his feet he felt around for anything that might just break or make noise. It was slow going but it worked.

The agent walked throughout the greenhouse as quiet as a mouse. He looked at the plants as he went by; they seemed... Different. Not the sort of plants that Sonntag had been growing, but they weren't terran by his standards either. They grew strangely. Plants that would have been drooping slightly stood stick-straight without help. Cavennaugh looked around. Something wasn't right here. It was like they were growing almost every type of vegetable possible with the mutation... He shuddered, but that wasn't the feeling he was getting.

Sean was the type of person who no one could scare. Yet, for some strange reason it felt as if someone was walking on his grave. It was that instinct, a soldier's instinct, that had kept him alive for all these years. He swirled his head around quickly, his eyes seeking the enemy he knew to be there. There was no one, though; he shook his head and attributed the creepy feeling to paranoia.

He went back to examining the plants. 'It might be best to film them now.' he thought to himself, taking out the small camcorder. He switched it on night vision, and started to film them. Sean avoided the light of view port, knowing it would ruin his sight. He decided to keep it in his peripheral vision. He quietly walked along the path, filming the strange plants for the doctors, but avoiding touching the plants. Suddenly he felt a wisp of wind hit him. His head jerked up again. Once more he attributed it to his own fears.

Cavennaugh continued to walk down the path. He paused to examine the corn plants. They were straighter then any maize he'd ever seen. He noticed that the leaves didn't look to be soft. They looked like they would be smooth to the touch, and probably rigid as well. He blew at them; normal corn plants would have at least swayed a fraction of an inch or two. Instead these plants did not stray at all from where they stood, standing still against his heavy breath. He shook his head.

"Snap!" his head swirled. Now he was sure he wasn't alone. He heard footsteps running in one direction, away from him. All caution forgotten, Cavennaugh started to run that way. Suddenly, he tripped over something. Sean managed to catch himself. He looked down at what he fell over. His eyes widened when he realized just what he had tripped over. Whatever it was it had a timer with less then thirty seconds on it. It didn't take much for him to decide to quit his chase of the unknown suspect. He started to run towards the nearest exit, but then he realized that his time was almost up. Instead he threw himself through the glass wall as the bomb went off, spilling fire into the sky...

----

Caffrey's head snapped about when she heard the explosion. The man dived out of the SUV as fast as possible, running into the nearby woods. She started to chase after him, but stopped when she thought about Cavennaugh.

She looked and saw him laying on the ground; shards of glass reflecting the flames surrounded him.

Fenway got out of the SUV as well, closing the door behind him so Daphne wouldn't leave. "I'll see to him, just help me get him into the vehicle!"

She did so, before gunfire erupted nearby. They heard Larson gasp. "Oh my god, they're shooting at us!" They rushed toward the SUV as fast as possible as the bullets missed them by mere inches. Daphne threw open the door as Fenway and Caffrey tossed the large man into the vehicle. Daphne crawled into the driver's seat, and the moment everyone was in the car, they took off.

"We have to handle this now! We must stop Apocrypha, while we still have a chance!" Molly cried out.

"Its not worth Cavennaugh's life right now!" growled Fenway. "Is it?"

"Plus, I think they put a stint into their own operations."

She drove madly trying to get further away from the explosion; she heard fire trucks coming. Daphne pulled over on the side of the road as they ripped by. She then took off again, her eyes more on the rear-view mirror then anything else.

She drove as fast as possible, but not fast enough. Soon she noticed headlights rounding corners, coming for them. Larson put her foot harder down on the accelerator, but nothing helped. She had already been pushing the car to its limits; it would not go any faster. "Damn SUV!" She hit the wheel.

Fenway looked up, his eyes wide. "Let Caffrey get behind the wheel!"

"No, I'm fine!" Then they heard gunfire again. The car behind them pushed closer. Caffrey grabbed out her phone, calling for backup.

"Where are you guys? I thought I told you to stay within a five mile radius!"

"We're on the way!"

Daphne swerved as the car tried to ram the back of the SUV. "How stupid are these people!" she demanded. "For them to think they could actually ram this monster off the road!"

Bullets hit the SUV several times. Fenway and Caffrey ducked as hot lead pelleted the back seats. Molly bit back her screams, as did Fenway with his curses. Caffrey stood up suddenly. Fenway reached up to jerk her back down. "ARE YOU CRAZY!"

She shook his hand off her pants, and lifted her gun, firing back. The bullets took out the remaining glass in the back, and hit the car behind them. It had hardly any effect. "Hand me Cavennaugh's gun!"

Fenway passed her the gun with the electric shells. She took aimed and fired. The car pulsated momentarily with electricity causing the drivers to suddenly stop in confusion. Another car joined the SUV, leaving the Apocrypha organization behind...

----

The raven haired woman watched the elders in an uproar. Never had the organization came this close to being fully discovered. "I told you we were moving to fast, but you never listen to me, do you." She looked down at her watch, it was time... "I have to go now father, to see if anything remains for my work." She left the room of the elders to themselves...

She walked once more out of the room. She had been right, again. Why did they never listen to her? She wasn't some silly child who knew nothing of the world... After all, she was her father's daughter was she not? And she would follow in his footsteps, just like they wanted. But why then did they still not listen? She sighed as she walked the soon to the destroyed halls of the Apocrypha...

----

to be continued... 


	3. Vigilante

Disclaimer: I do not own Threshold. I wish I did... Yet, sadly I do not.  
Please see author's note in my profile for more information. 

Beta'd by memorial-ETHOS. Note: "I've corrected, to my own knowledge, her grammar. The majority of the story is left intact to it's original version."

Last time...

The raven haired woman watched the elders in an uproar. Never had the organization came this close to being fully discovered. "I told you we were moving to fast, but you never listen to me, do you." She looked down at her watch, it was time... "I have to go now father, to see if anything remains for my work." She left the room of the elders to themselves...

She walked once more out of the room. She had been right, again. Why did they never listen to her? She wasn't some silly child who knew nothing of the world... After all, she was her father's daughter was she not? And she would follow in his footsteps, just like they wanted. But why then did they still not listen? She sighed as she walked the soon to the destroyed halls of the Apocrypha...

Chapter three: Vigilante

Molly was resting... She tossed and turned as the dreams started; if she were to have these "communications", they happened at this time of night.

There she was, standing in the glass forest. She heard the resonating sound of the crystals. It always freaked her out because for some odd reason she felt at home... Molly walked quietly, looking to see the creature who was always watching from a distance. It was always too far for her to see its face...

Her feet were barefoot on the strange, colored ground. She looked down at it. Its bluish color sometimes scared her, but she was getting more used to it. That scared her most of all. Her hair hung in her face again. She reached up and tried to sweep it from her face, but it wouldn't comply so she ignored it. Quietly she walked forward. "Hello?" she called out.

There was no answer. This time it seemed the dream was stronger, almost as if it was real. It was letting her go further then ever before. She walked some more, looking around at the trees made of glass. Molly reached out and touched one's smooth linear surface; it was completely alien to her. How did these things grow? Were they even natural, or was it something artificial that grew on the planet of the aliens?

She sighed, knowing that more incidents were going to happen before she got those answers. A wisp of wind hit her from the back. There had never been any breeze here before. She turned quickly and saw a familiar man standing there.

"Gunneson!" she whispered. "What?" she backed away from the crewman.

He approached her. "Molly, we can help you. Just accept it, and everything will be fine. This is a gift from a superior race, not a curse."

She gasped, and tried to turn. He grabbed her before she could get away. "All truths will be told in time; just believe in these words."

"Let me go!"

He just smiled at her, her eyes focused only on him...

----

Fenway was looking into his microscope, having a nice time examining red blood cells when he heard a whimper.

'What the hell?' he thought to himself, looking up. The older man turned around, looking about his med-lab and locating the source. It was Molly. The moment he looked at her she started to thrash in her bed.

Her rushed over to where she was laying; it looked as if she was dreaming again... "CAFFREY! WAKE UP!" Fenway growled, shaking her.

"Huh?" She sat up, looking very confused. "What am I doing in here?"

"Remember, you wanted to stay till Cavennaugh woke up. You fell asleep, though."

She nodded, her memories coming back to her.

"You were dreaming, weren't you?"

She nodded. "This was different though. Very different. Gunneson was there, it was like... Like he was specifically communicating with me."

Fenway nodded. "Document it." He went back to his desk and took out a notepad and pen and threw to her.

She nodded. "Okay." Caffrey started to get to work...

---

After she documented the dream, Molly got up out of bed. She yawned and looked over at Cavennaugh. He still hadn't woken up yet; Fenway had sedated him till his burns healed up a bit more. The explosion had wrecked some havoc on Sean. His back had third degree burns on it.

"How soon till he wakes up, Fenway?"

Fenway looked up from his microscope, stifling a yawn. "I don't know, could be in the next minute or so or a couple of days."

She nodded, looking down at the wounded soldier. He was laying on his stomach in the bed. Fenway had to have help turning his over so he just laid his that way so he could change the bandages easier.

"Why don't you go back to bed Caffrey? Everyone else is."

She looked around and noticed Daphne curled up on one of the beds looking peaceful for once. Her brunette hair flowed onto her pillow. Molly then looked towards Lucas who was doing better thanks to Daphne's and Fenway's hard work. He was sleeping peacefully, his curls even more messed up then usual and he had a slight beard growing.

Gunneson and Libby were both asleep as well. She frowned at the sight of the crewman. He had no right haunting her dreams. "Why don't you go to bed, Fenway? You're the one always nagging me about not getting enough sleep."

He shrugged. "I will in a bit. I've got a few more things to run." He bent back down and started to examine whatever he was looking at.

Caffrey shrugged as she laid back down and closed her eyes. "Night, Fenway..."

"Night, Molly." he muttered from his microscope.

---

The next day Caffrey woke up refreshed, and feeling good. She rolled out of the bed, and noticed her clothes were rumpled. She vainly smoothed and pulled the creases out of her dark skirt and shirt. Her eyes then glanced over at all of the sleeping people in the med-lab and smiled; Fenway's lab was turning into a dorm. Fenway himself seemed to still be up. She frowned at this, going over to where he was still working at the microscope. She looked at the older man a few moments then noticed he seemed to not be moving. "Is he asleep?" she asked herself aloud.

She tapped her foot and noticed he didn't start like he generally did when someone made a noise. She then tapped him.

"Huh?" he sat straight up, blinking at the light. "What is it?"

She sniffled a laugh at his now racoon looking eyes. "Fenway, you fell asleep at your microscope. Get some real rest for pete's sake."

He nodded, getting up and trying to stretch; his back popped and he groaned.

"How's it like being old?" Larson asked from behind them.

They both jumped. "Not funny, Daphne. And I'm not old!"

She rose an eyebrow, mimicking Fenway's favorite expression. "Uh-huh, sure. Whatever Fenway, lie to yourself why don't you?"

He glared at the fellow doctor. "Anyways, Caffrey, I've got results finally from my medicine. It starting to work on those we caught early... But some of them got infected though, still..."

Her green eyes widened. "How many?"

"Out of over three hundred exposed to the infection, I managed to save only thirty nine. I'm sorry to say that over two hundred and fifty people have to go to West Virginia."

She nodded, then gazed over at the sleeping Lucas. "Did you catch his early enough?"

Fenway smiled. "Maybe. Maybe not. Its starting to look like I did." Fenway walked over to the bedside and looked down at the fitfully sleeping young man. "He told me not to take him off the medicine, no matter what."

Molly's blinked. "What? That's almost like suicide..."

Fenway nodded. "Even though that sort of thing goes against his beliefs, he thought being infected was worse."

Molly sighed;, she understood where the young man was coming from. It was bad enough having the dreams, but becoming an infectee seemed worse then death to her... "I understand where he's coming from. The same applies to me if I ever come close to being fully infected."

"I'll remember that," said Fenway.

Larson rolled her eyes. "Come on guys, we got to get to work, not stand around all day being as serious as possible."

----

Ramsey was the one watching the phones. He had nothing better to do. Oddly enough Caffrey hadn't given him anything to do other then to just sit there and watch a phone. Instead of literally watching it, he surfed the internet... Doing his usual stuff internet gambling. Sure he had promised Fenway that he'd stop drinking, but he had said nothing about poker.

He rubbed his dark beard, considering whether to fold or not. He had a decent hand, but who knew what the other man had. The rest of the players had folded out; it was just between him and the other dude now. It was the moment of truth, Ramsey decided to raise the bet.

The pot was worth ten thousand. The other player rose the bet as well. This went on for a few minutes until it was finally the moment of truth. Both hands were exposed to what they really were; Ramsey had two queens and a pair of tens. The other had a pair of jacks and a pair of twos. Ramsey breathed a sigh of relief; he'd just won a nice, big poker pot. Of course it had originally been Threshold's money, but well... They really didn't need it. He sent it to his account in the Cayman's.

----

Manning wore a hood to disguise himself; he was not fooled though. He could see the captain's profile still,  
he watched as the infectee stole across the night. The man walked quietly behind the captain, keeping in the shadows. The man watched as the captain walked quietly through the capital's streets, the street lights illuminating his dark cloak.

The man noticed the captain pausing; he quickly stopped in his tracks and looked up at the sky. Damn, the city lights drowned out the natural star light... He couldn't even tell the time. The dark haired man looked for the moon. Yes, there was that bright orb that seemingly floated in the sky. A little past two o'clock in the morning and the infectee hadn't stopped to rest yet. Whatever mischief the captain was making it must be important, for he had been tracking Manning for several hours now.

The captain started to walk again, and the man quietly followed. Far enough behind the captain where he could not even sense his alien presence...

Little did they know they were both being watched by another. She picked up her phone and dialed the number her boss had given her; to that skyscraper that stood out against the sky...

----

The phone rang. Ramsey jumped, pressing the wrong button. "Damn," he muttered. He had just lost five thousand dollars, but oh well it wasn't his money anyways.

He picked up the phone, "Hello?"

----

Five minutes later he was looking for Caffrey; she was no where to be found. He had already looked into her office. Not even her jacket or purse was there. At first he thought she had went home, and had called her phone. There was no answer, so he had resorted to looking for her all over Threshold. They were all supposed to answer their phones, no matter what. She had written the protocols; why wasn't she following them?

He looked into the break room. She wasn't there. No one was there; it was so quiet without Cavennaugh, Roberts, or Lucas there to give him company. Molly wasn't much fun to be around, Fenway was always grouchy, Baylock nagged too much, and Whitaker was a jackass. There was no one left to talk with, and it was because of those alien bastards.

He then walked into Fenway's lab, hoping she was there... He saw her sitting beside Sean's bedside looking worried about the agent. She didn't hear him. Molly was just sitting there staring off into space with tears dripping from her eyes.

Ramsey felt sort of sorry for the woman, but it wasn't his job to feel pity. Right now his priority was to snap her out of it, and sick her on Manning. "Caffrey!"

Her head shot up, her eyes widening in shock. She quickly put herself together, her face completely composed.

"Yes Ramsey?"

"Manning got spotted by one of those watchers you posted everywhere. Come on!"

She stood up, and grabbed her jacket. Molly turned and called out. "Fenway!"

The spiky haired doctor stuck his head out of the conjuring bio-lab, "What?"

"Manning has been spotted! I'm going with Ramsey to see if we can get him."

Fenway nodded. "Let me guess; you want me to watch Cavennaugh?"

She smiled at the doctor. "Please?"

"Oh, okay." He sat down where Molly had previously been sitting.

She grabbed the dwarf's arm and drug him out into the hall. "Come on!"

"What do you mean come on? I'm not going!" He wrenched his arm from Caffrey's grasp. "Send some of your henchmen! I don't want to even go near one of those alien freaks! Much less track them down!" he shouted.

Molly glared at him. "Well, you are going. Fenway needs to stay here. Cavennaugh and Lucas are out. J.T. and Whitaker can't go, and I need another team member to back me up. So that leaves you, so stop bitching and come on."

Ramsey glared at her. "I don't think my linguist skills or math skills are needed in a man hunt."

She started to tap her foot; Ramsey had never seen her eyes flash like that. Yet, he glared at her still.

"I'm not going."

"You are too. You are going to serve as back-up biatch, is that clear? With a gun and all, and that's final." she said this with a evil smile.

---

They were walking in a group. Molly had brought along a couple of agents to help if things got nasty. Ramsey was still upset that she had forced him to go with her on a wild goose chase for the captain. What right did she have to make him do anything? It was bad enough that she had literally abducted him; he had been satisfied with living a perfectly deviant lifestyle.

Now here he was stuck between two hired grunts, while Caffrey led the way into the unknown down a darkened street with only streetlights for illumination. They cast odd shadows on the sidewalk; they passed under another. Ramsey looked up at it, the bulb casting a golden light down at him.

They continued to walk in the district's cold air. it was late in the year, a time when they shouldn't be walking outside for this long without better coats. He shivered slightly while trying not to show he was cold. Not only was he cold, but his heart was heavy. Here he was walking, while two of his friends were in the med-lab. Lucas was still not cleared from the mutation, Fenway thought he had it under control but wasn't sure enough to let the younger man leave. Cavennaugh was unconscious, sedated, so he wouldn't be in misery from his third-degree burns on his back. Fenway was literally living in his lab to take care of them, as if he felt guilty about something.

Guilt was something Ramsey knew well. Sometimes that was all he felt; he had promised so many things in life to so many people. Sure, sometimes he kept those promises. Yet, the majority of the time he didn't. He had promised to stop drinking. Instead he moved on to another addiction. Gambling.

He sighed, and what made it worse, he was carrying an instrument of war. War was something he had never agreed with. It involved bloodshed and violence. He might play it in a video game, but he would never agree to it in real life. Yet, here he was, carrying a gun. The catalyst of the modern world... Which caused endless decades of death and destruction, and conquests... It wasn't something he wanted to be associated with, much less equipped with.

Then he stopped in his tracks; they all did, in fact. Caffrey had stopped on the cracked sidewalk. "What it is,

Molly?"

"Is that him, up ahead?" she whispered.

They all looked; there was a man with a hood drew up. He was just standing there, peering ahead.

Ramsey shrugged. "Why don't you guys check it out while I stick back here?"

Molly glared at him. "How about we all go?"

They walked closer to the man; he did nothing. He was still standing there looking into the unknown...

Suddenly shots rang out! All of them went down on the pavement, ducking and covering their heads like Cavennaugh had trained them to do. When it was over, they looked up. The man was gone; vanished into thin air...

---

They went back to Threshold empty handed... Ramsey and Caffrey went into the med-lab, where Fenway was still sitting up sipping on a cup of coffee. The old man looked a little rough around the edges, having not shaved in awhile. He looked up when they entered. "Didn't catch Manning?"

Caffrey nodded and told him the story...

He rose an eyebrow,."Shots fired? What was with that?"

Ramsey shrugged. "We called a couple of more goons down there and told them to figure it out. Then we left."

"It was getting cold," Caffrey finished.

"I wasn't cold!" growled Ramsey.

Fenway rolled his clear blue eyes. "Both of you stay here, I'm going to get you coffee. I don't want more patients then I already have."

He returned with two steaming mugs. "Its cold enough in this building. I can't imagine how it is outside." He handed the mugs to the other two who were looking surprised.

"Are you okay Fenway? You've been acting strange lately." Caffrey asked.

He just shrugged. "I'm fine."

---

Caffrey just sat there for a long time, looking out a window in Fenway's small office. She was still sipping on the mug of coffee he had given her, it was lukewarm now. It was also nice to watch it start to snow, but that wasn't her purpose here. She was waiting till Ramsey left to go do whatever he did, and for Fenway and Daphne to go to sleep. Then she could have a nice long talk with Lucas.

She heard rustling outside in the lab. Caffrey got out of Fenway's chair and went out there. He was taking off his lab coat and putting on that gray hoodie he wore outside. "I'm going to back to the hotel, so's Daphne.

See you later Caffrey."

She nodded, and then lied for the first time to Fenway. "I'm about to head back to Richmond," she yawned to give him comfort; she was going home to sleep.

He looked at her momentarily. "Grab another cup of coffee Caffrey, you shouldn't drive while sleepy. Otherwise you'll end up in here."

She smiled. "I will."

Fenway and Daphne left together, both heading back to their separate hotels. Caffrey watched as they left, waiting till they were in the elevator. Once she heard the ping of the doors, she went over to Lucas.

Molly shook the boy awake. "Huh?" he muttered groggily. "What is it Caffrey?"

"We need to talk." She sat down on the conjoining bed. "Lucas, I need to know if you want Rachel to know about Threshold."

He stared at her. "No, I just want to see her. Can't you make up some lie about it?"

"Do you want to start your marriage with a lie?" she asked him, looking him straight in the eye.

He shook his head. "No and yes. If it takes a lie to protect her, I'll sure as hell do it."

She nodded. "I'm leaving it up to you, actually. I'm going to let you see her, but you've got to come up with what you are going to tell her."

"I already know; I'm using what you told to Rossi. About Al Qaeda, and all." he muttered.

"A good a lie, as any." Caffrey said, getting up. "Tomorrow I'm going to Bethesda, and speaking to her."

"What exactly have you told her about me?" said Lucas.

"I had someone call, and tell her that he's your boss and was going to keep you over for quite a long time."

He nodded."Okay. Just let me see her again. Please..."

----

Molly drove into Bethesda. When she got into Lucas' neighborhood she double checked the address. She soon spotted the house; it was a nice house in a nice area of the suburbs. Pleasant lawns even in the winter,  
beautiful houses already decorated for Christmas. Molly sighed; she had never lived in this nice a place when she was young. She parked her vehicle in the driveway, got out and went to the door. Hopefully Rachel would be here.

She walked up to the oak door and picked up the knocker and dropped it a couple of times. It thudded against the wooden door. A few moments later she heard footsteps coming down a set of stairs and then she saw the door swing open to reveal a petite asian woman. Rachel blinked and then asked. "Who are you?"

Molly stretched out her hand. "My name is Molly Caffrey, I'm Lucas' boss."

----

She was standing in the new home of Apocrypha. It was the secondary base high in the mountains; she looked out the window and took in the scenery of the smooth peaks. They even had snow already gracing the taller summits.

She smiled and sighed at the beauty of everything around her. It was truly serene, to be here away from everything else in the world. If only life could be like this all the time...

The sheer beauty of her surroundings were enough for her to forget why she was here at the secondary base...

What she had to do, to better herself, and to lead others to do so as well. She shook her raven locks; she had a job to do.

A mission.

----

Molly entered the room with Rachel. Lucas looked up with hope in his eyes. Fenway had removed the restraints so that Rachel wouldn't panic at the sight of her future husband in that state.

The young woman rushed over to her lover, throwing her arms around him. It had been close to a week since she'd had last seen him; she had been so worried.

He just held her, and she clung to him. "I missed you so much..." he whispered. She nodded, tears flowing down her face...

Molly and Nigel watched from the window. "Do you think he'll be alright now?" she muttered.

Fenway nodded with a smile. "What did you tell her?"

"I told her about Al Qaeda using organic terrorism."

Fenway rose an eyebrow. "Organic? Interesting term for it, but medically correct I suppose. He'll be fine,  
nothing can bring him down." He walked out of the lab, leaving Caffrey to ponder his last words.

----

Fenway was watching his thirty nine remaining patients; these were the ones he had to be the most worried about... They were the dreamers. Who knew what they saw in those communications. Some of them were so young,  
hell when he was that age he was out partying, drinking, and having a generally good time. Of course, he wasn't breaking the law either. It was dangerous back then, in the late sixties and early seventies to do anything really serious when it came to law-breaking. He winced, thinking about it; that's what these people were as well. Casualties of a war they did not know was yet happening...

Back then the risk was being drafted, just by being a young man, not keeping your grades up, or getting into trouble with the law... Now to become a casualty, or to be drug into the front lines of almost certain death;  
all you had to do was pick up a can of green beans. Times had changed in a little over thirty years; back then they were fighting a fake war against communists, now... They were fighting a covert interstellar war they always said wouldn't happen in our lifetime; yeah right.

One main difference was that he protested the Vietnam war. This time he wasn't going to. This was the result of not moving fast enough, and these were the ones that were going to recover. Well, sort of recover. They were going to have dreams till the threat was gone, and according to the three dreamers on the red team, these weren't visions of the sugar plum fairy. Instead, some of those documented dreams read like horror movie scripts. They were escalating. Now here were, thirty nine new victims; these people would now have these dreams. Hell, they weren't even in on the truth. They thought terrorists were doing this to them; could they call the aliens terrorists?

----

"We are moving them to West Virginia." Caffrey solidly said.

Whitaker glared at her. "Remember what happened last time you said that!"

"Where else are we going to take them? There's no where else! And we can't keep them here! I could deal with having maybe twenty here, but over two hundred is too much for the staff!"

Fenway nodded. "I can't care for that many people for a prolonged period of time. Right now I'm exhausted... I just want to sleep." He yawned again, taking another sip out of his coffee mug he seemed to carry all the time now.

Daphne nodded. "I'm sleepy as well. We haven't had more then ten hours of sleep since this outbreak began.  
Please Whitaker!"

"WE HAVE TO MOVE THEM!" all three shouted.

Whitaker backed down. "Very well, but if something happens, it's your hide, Caffrey."

----

Ramsey was now playing Poker again, bigger amounts this time... He just couldn't stop; it didn't give him a kick anymore to bet "small" amounts like five thousand dollars... Now it was much bigger, try twenty thousand dollars out of Threshold's budget.

It just made him feel so good... He closed his eyes; the bet was now much higher. Would he risk it all just to get that one feeling of exhilaration? It was almost like self-destruction, just less bloody.

He pressed the mouse...

Then the phone rang once more... He didn't look at the screen; butterflies fluttered in his stomach. Why did he always feel like this, a mixture of guilt... and what else? It made him feel real. Yes, that was it. Real. "Hello?"

----

He was looking for Caffrey again. For some reason she kept on disappearing. He looked in the break room once more; nope not that. Again. He was guessing she'd be back in Fenway's labs. She was always there now a days.  
It was most likely because Cavennaugh was still in there, sleeping.

He entered the lab, and saw Caffrey sitting next to Cavennaugh's bed, looking glum. He rolled his eyes going over there. "We got a report of Janklow now!"

She nodded getting up. "Okay..."

"What's wrong Caffrey?" the dwarf asked.

"Nothing, its nothing." She went into Fenway's small window office. "Fenway?"

The older man looked up from his reports. "You going somewhere again?"

She nodded. "Can you sit with Cavennaugh for me again? I want someone there when he wakes up."

Fenway nodded.. "Alright, go on. I'll be out there in a minute."

----

They were once more walking into the shadowy night. It was just like the last time. Almost as if time was repeating, Ramsey looked up once more into the golden orbs that were bulbs. It was almost like looking into the end of tunnel...

He shook his head, trying to get rid of morbid thoughts. That wasn't what he needed right now; he didn't need to think about death. Instead he should be thinking of how to get out of this alien-made hell. Ramsey concentrated on the situation at hand instead. It was damned cold out here. He looked ahead where Caffrey was walking.

How did women not freeze in those skirts?

He shook his head, and decided not think about Caffrey's skirt. She had this eerie sixth sense of knowing when he was thinking perverted thoughts... Ramsey knew one thing about Molly Anne Caffrey for certain; she didn't appreciate him thinking that way about her.

A mad Caffrey wouldn't make the situation any better. They walked on, it was so cold out here. Ramsey subconsciously rubbed his arms, then remembered that a "real" man wouldn't show any weakness. He stopped that immediately and continued to follow Caffrey and her goons. He hated being out here in the freezing weather; hell, there was even some snow on the ground. Where was that teenager!

He looked up at the sky as he walked, noticing the dim redness to it. The glow of the city cast that color upon the low lying clouds. Ramsey knew they carried more snow. He smiled as they walked some more. That was the only thing he liked about this city; it occasionally snowed here. He sighed. Why was it taking so long just to find Janklow?

They continued to walk for several more minutes in complete silence; the only sound being the cars that passed them by and the crunch of snow underneath their feet...

----

He watched the young man; once more he stuck to the shadows. The vigilante followed him quietly, his footsteps not even making a noise. He knew this was one of the most dangerous of the blessed... Or the cursed, however one thought of it.

Suddenly he saw a group of people approaching his target; his electric blue eyes widened. He didn't need any casualties, all he wanted to hit was his target! He looked up from his scope, and watched the now distant people walking towards Janklow.

He looked back into his scope, brushing a dark lock out of his face. They were close enough that he could see their faces through the glass. It was two tall burley looking men, what looked to be a dwarf with a dark beard, and a lovely woman with flowing black hair. No he couldn't take the shot, well just not yet.

Then he noticed they looked to be tracking Janklow. "What the hell?" he muttered to himself. Who would actually be tracking Janklow? Then it hit him. Somehow they knew Janklow wasn't a normal human. They seemed to be keeping their distance.

This wasn't good... He aimed his rifle. Could he make the shot before Janklow noticed he was being tracked and disappear?

----

Molly got a shiver up and down her spine. She stopped dead in her tracks, holding up a hand. Everyone behind her stopped as well.

"What's wrong Caffrey. Can't we just get this over with?" demanded Ramsey.

She shook her head. "No, there's something wrong here. I don't know..." Caffrey looked ahead where Janklow had stopped in his tracks. "Oh no," she whispered. "Janklow has stopped!" She lifted her gun and fired a shock shot.

He was fading away, entering another dimension when the shock enveloped him. The strands of electricity ran all over his body; the blue streaks disappeared along with him as he completely faded away.

Caffrey and the rest just stared at the spot where Janklow had just stood. "What the fuck was with that!" shouted Ramsey.

Caffrey just shrugged, her mouth hanging open slightly in shock...

----

His mouth was slightly open as well... He couldn't believe what he had just saw. He had seen that woman, Molly Caffrey, fire a single shot at the infectee. It had hit the boy and had actually taken effect, yet the boy had initiated the dimension transfer just in time. Lucky son of a bitch. The man with electric eyes got out of his sniper's nest, and decided to meet this Threshold team that kept on ruining his plans...

He closed his eyes and thought as hard as he could. He thought of the golden lights, and the falling snowflakes. Of the cracked city pavement, and smell of exhaust... Then he added in the buildings around him,  
and then the people... then he was there standing before the four...

----

Molly twisted around suddenly, her eyes widening with fear.

"What's wrong this time, Caffrey! I thought we were leaving!" Ramsey shouted.

She shook her head. "No... There's something very wrong. So wrong..." Molly whispered.

Ramsey noticed she was actually shivering, goose bumps forming of her porcelain skin.

She kept on looking at a particular spot; for some strange reason it felt like hell had opened up... The gates of hell opening, but not heat coming out... Cold, such cold it was almost unimaginable. Her eyes were huge in fear as she felt something stepping through, and then the man with electric blues eyes was there...

She knew then that they were dealing with more then they could even imagine...

----

The man stared at her. "You're Molly Caffrey of the Blackwood think tank aren't you?" he asked.

She blinked, shocked that this stranger who had literally appeared out of thin air knew her name. "Ho-how did you know that!" she demanded.

He smiled. "You will see in the end..." The mysterious man then disappeared. The last thing to fade was his wide grin...

"Uh, that was freaky." Ramsey said.

"That's an understatement, Ramsey." she shuddered.

"Did he remind you of the Cheshire cat?" the dwarf asked.

Molly really shivered then. "Let's not talk about that!"

Ramsey grinned wide. "I have a feeling you were afraid of that damned cat? Weren't you? Scared of a creature out of Alice in Wonderland! HA!"

She glared. "We have more important things to talk about other then Alice in Wonderland! LIKE THERE'S SOMEONE WHO KNOWS ABOUT THRESHOLD!"

----

"WHAT!" growled Whitaker. "One of them knows about Threshold! Now just how the hell did that happen! Do we have another leak?"

Molly shook her head.. "No, I'm sure of it. There's been no leaks."

"Then how did he know about Threshold?"

She shrugged. Caffrey had her suspicions but they weren't something you told your boss... Thoughts like those were best kept quiet until proven, unless she wanted to be viewed as mad. "I have no idea..."

"Didn't you say they communicated through dreams! Maybe they found out someway like that?"

She shrugged once more, "Stuff like that is Fenway's department, not mine. Go ask him."

----

Fenway was now listening to Jefferson's Airplane, one of his favorite bands back from the good times... He felt at peace with the world right now; he had released thirty nine patients, Daphne had went home finally... He was about to release Lucas, and everything was nice and quiet. The three patients he had left were Cavennaugh,  
and he was going to be okay. Libby who was now around eighteen weeks pregnant, and Gunneson who was still sleeping.

It was pleasant and quiet, and perfect. He was being left alone finally to sip on his warm coffee, and on the upside of things his medicine was finally showing real results! Nigel Fenway was a satisfied man. He leaned back in his office chair, having finished all government paper work that was given to him. He was now taking a much deserved break, even going to the point of putting his feet on his desk. Yes this night was a good one.

He turned his music up louder and closed his eyes, listening to Grace Slick's sultry voice. He remained that way for several minutes reminiscing about the first time he heard that song, so long ago when it suddenly went off. He heard a tapping of a heel against the floor; he sighed as he opened his eyes. "Yes, slave master?"

----

"Its not impossible, that they could be taking information from your dreams. Hmm... My bets though are on Lucas, he was temporarily one of them before I pulled him back." Fenway rubbed his chin, thinking harder.

Molly nodded. "I felt him before he appeared; it was so cold..." She shivered, remembering that icy feeling.  
He nodded. "Your theta waves are heightened. It may effect them when they appear from another dimension."

"But why would that make me feel cold?"

He shrugged. "It might stimulate the area of your brain that differentiates between the cold and hot."

She sighed. "So basically I'm a lightning rod for feeling these transfers?"

He nodded. "I'm betting that Lucas and Cavennaugh can feel the transfers as well."

"The question is this, where are they going?" she murmured.

"Lucas already said that the probe was either in the fourth or fifth dimension; they could easily be the same."

"You mean, we can't see all of them?" She shook her head. "No that's not it..."

"What I don't get," muttered Fenway, "is why the aliens are interested in a third dimensional planet if they are a dimension or two higher then us. What's the point of taking over earth, if you really can't use it in the first place?"

Molly shrugged. "We'll see in time..."

----

Sean was walking in the forest of glass. He had been here for so long... He stumbled and fell to the ground;  
Cavennaugh felt so weak, so exhausted.

He didn't know why he wouldn't wake. He had been fighting a never ending battle since he had begun dreaming.

No matter what he did in this dream state... No matter what he faced here, he could not escape. Once more he felt the intense cold; someone was about to appear.

He had to get out of here! Molly needed to know their secret, but he... He was too weak to win this battle.

Nothing could wake him, nothing could stir him... He watched as the man appeared once more; the man with electric blue eyes walked a distance, then disappeared once more into the real world. Yet, Cavennaugh was still here, stuck in a place between dimensions that remained unknown.

----

Molly laid down once more in the med-lab. She was so tired... She closed her green eyes, and sighed. Finally she could rest in peace; it was nice and quiet. Fenway had went to his hotel, Daphne had left the premises till next needed, Lucas was asleep with Rachel in his arms, Gunneson wasn't making a noise, Libby was sleeping, and Cavennaugh was still sedated. There was no sound anywhere in this lab, but she could hear the stirring's of creatures from the bio-lab. This she could ignore, having gotten used to them in the past few nights.

Soon she fell into a deep sleep, Molly thought that maybe she would have a normal dream for once. But no, she had bad luck, again.

She was walking in the forest with tree made of glass. She reached out and let one of her slender hands touch the smooth surface of the crystal trees. It felt almost like home now... It wasn't foreign anymore. Molly actually sort of liked this place now; she rarely had visitors. Fenway didn't like to hear about her appreciating this place, it made him worry. She shook her head, her raven locks falling all about. Never mind Fenway's concerns, this was the only place where she was truly at peace. Well, when she didn't have company.

There was always someone there, well, something in the shadows, that is. She could never figure out what it was.

Caffrey could make an outline out, but nothing more.

She sat down in the forest; there was no point in moving. There was no point in anything here in this place made of dreams. Why exhaust her mind, when she could sit here and admire the trees? She just sat there for what seemed to be hours; she couldn't get enough of the linear surfaces of this dream world. She then heard a footstep. Molly looked up to see Gunneson, he sat down beside her.

"Have you made a decision yet?"

She shook her head. "No, I haven't. Why should I stop fighting?"

"Don't you trust your instincts?" the man asked her.

"How do I know they didn't change when I watched that video?"

He chuckled. "This is a gift, Molly. Nothing more, nothing less. All I wish to do is to give it to the entire world; I have no ill intentions."

"How do you know that's the reason? How do I even know if this is just a dream, or something more!"

"Molly if you're here, you exist. You are aware of yourself aren't you?"

"Sometimes you don't make sense. Gunneson."

He laughed. "You'll see in time..." He got up, and ran a hand through his brown hair. "I'll see you tomorrow night, same place, okay?"

She nodded as Gunneson took his leave, like he did every night now... "Goodnight, Gunneson."

"Night Caffrey, sweet dreams." he wished her as he disappeared.

Molly went back to studying every portion of the scenery, her mind wandering as the night progressed.

----

She once more felt someone sit down beside her. Molly turned and looked at her new visitor. It was the man with electric blue eyes.

She started, and scrambled to her feet. He reached up and grabbed her leg, gently pulling her back down. "You don't have to worry. I'm not here to hurt you."

She relaxed slightly, but still didn't trust this stranger. "Who are you!"

"Apocrypha calls me the vigilante, but you may call me Kyle."

"Okay, Kyle. What brings you here?"

He chuckled. "I mean no harm to you. You just have to trust me, in fact, I'll prove to you that I'm to be trusted."

She gave him a skeptical look. "Alright then, prove you have honorable intentions then. But why do you seem to always be near the infected?"

He laughed. "I'm hunting them. That's what I do, there's no point in them spreading the mutation." He scrambled to him feet. "I'm keeping this visit brief, Caffrey." A smile crossed his lips. His eyes danced in mirth. "But we will met again."

----

Molly woke up a few minutes later; she shivered. Fenway has turned down the heat when he left. She shook her head. After the last argument she had him with him over the heating bill for the lab alone, he had agreed to turn down the thermostat at night. Of course, it was typical of Fenway to try to stimulate balmy Florida in his lab...

She got off the bed, and checked on Sean. There was still no change, except his lips were slightly pursed.

She caressed his cheek; it was clammy. Yes, she needed to turn up the heat. She did so and sat back down, looking around at the rest of the occupants. They were all the same as they had been when she had went to sleep, except for Lucas and Rachel they were curled up tighter in each other's arms.

Young love, how sweet.

Molly left Sean's bedside, and stretched. There was no use in trying to get back to sleep, so she decided to walk around the building to get some exercise. She started to walk down the hall when she noticed the blue glow of a computer. Molly was curious; who would be on the computers at this time of night?

Carefully she walked without noise, and entered the open door. She saw Ramsey was still up, doing God knows what on his computer. Molly tiptoed closer, in order to read the screen. It was online gambling; her eyes grew wide at the sheer amounts of money being betted.

She left as quiet as she came, it was time to put a stop to this. Caffrey would deal with it in the morning...

----

The next morning...

The phone was ringing in his ear. Fenway opened one blue eye. Why was his phone ringing? It didn't need to ring; he'd been having such a good dream... He'd been back in the sixties, in the heyday of his youth.

Every time he had a decent dream, someone called him... Damn mind readers.

He glared at the phone, wishing that it was just disappear. But with no such luck, he grabbed it and answered it.

"This better be good!"

"Fenway, we need you." Caffrey's voice came through the speaker.

"Its not another damned outbreak is it!"

"No, no its nothing like that. We need you to go to a scene, really quickly and get a body. Again."

"Charming, who is it?"

"Harper."

"Okay, okay. I'm getting up. Give me five minutes. I presume a car is already here?" Fenway rolled out of bed, and was reaching for a set of clothes he kept hanging on a chair.

"Yes, just hurry." She hung up.

Fenway sighed as he was getting ready; yet another dead body to deal with. Figures.

----

Three hours later...

Fenway was pointing at the bullet hole in Harper's bald head. "It entered here as obvious, a perfect caliber.  
Left a small hole, but blew out the back of his head. Nice selection for your gunman."

Caffrey made a face,."That's disgusting, Fenway. I'll take this to Whitaker." She left the autopsy area, and got into the elevator and headed towards the meeting room where the ex-senator awaited her. She tapped her foot, leaning against the faux wood of the soon to be rising box; it took so long for this thing to actually move. She shuddered when she felt it start its upwards journey. She just hated these things.

Suddenly she felt so cold... Molly shivered, rubbing her arms. Why was it so cold in here?

Then he was standing beside her, the man with electric blue eyes.

She started. "What the hell!" she reached for her gun.

He put his hand on her arm. "I'm no danger to you, Molly. Remember the dream last night? I gave you my proof this morning."

She paused and relaxed, but not too much. "You shot Harper?"

He nodded. "It had to be done anyways; you spoilt my other two shots. Just your presence that close to the target alerted them. They can feel you, you know?"

She nodded. "How close?"

"I haven't been able to determine that myself, but just keep your distance and you'll be safe."

"How do I know that's in my best interests?"

He laughed. "I haven't hurt you yet? Have I? You're in an enclosed space, with me, a stranger who just appeared out of thin air. I haven't hurt you yet have I?"

She shrugged. "If you can do that, you must be fully infected... Why aren't you like the others?"

He put a finger to her lips. She backed away, startled at his brashness. "Just don't give in to the temptation and you'll be fine."

Kyle then disappeared once more. His blue eyes locked with her emerald ones, her mouth hanging slightly open in shock...

She told no one.

----

Baylock entered the room where Ramsey was manning the computer. "RAMSEY!" he roared at the top of his voice,

"DID YOU LOSE TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS LAST NIGHT?"

Ramsey head shot up, his eyes full of shock. "Uh, I don't know what you mean!"

"You know exactly what I mean; if this doesn't stop soon... You're off the team, do I make myself clear!"

"So? Off the team sounds like a good thing!"

"Its not," the portly man bend over and looked the dwarf in the eye. "Every action, has a reaction. A consequence, in other words. You're technically stealing from the government, and the consequence is jail time. Do I make myself clear!"

All Ramsey could do was nod; it was time to find another addiction...

----

to be continued...


	4. Alienville

Extended author's note: When I started to write this chapter I had not yet heard anything about the episodes the Crossing, Escalation, and Vigilante. So things are going to vary in order for me to maintain my plot, I will add in the new characters at different points though. I will still be keeping with the shows main plot as well; if you do not know what the reason behind the alien's infecting people is, then go see my profile where it will be explained in further detail. Thank you so much for even reading this far.

Beta'd by Ethos. Note: I've basically just beta'd her grammar and sentence structure, so everything else will remain intact for her artistic purposes. Hope you enjoy the chapter :). It's pretty damn nice! She reveals something I had to hear about for several weeks, LOL.

Last time...

Baylock entered the room where Ramsey was manning the computer. "RAMSEY!" he roared at the top of his voice. "DID YOU LOSE TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS LAST NIGHT?"

Ramsey head shot up, his eyes full of shock. "Uh, I don't know what you mean!"

"You know exactly what I mean. If this doesn't stop soon... You're off the team; do I make myself clear!"

"So? Off the team sounds like a good thing!"

"Its not." The portly man bent over and looked the dwarf in the eye. "Every action has a reaction. A consequence, in other words. You're technically stealing from the government, and the consequence is jail time. Do I make myself clear!"

All Ramsey could do was nod; it was time to find another addiction...

----

Chapter Four: Alienville

Cavennaugh felt strange. He paused from where he was walking. It felt almost like he was going to pass out. He leaned against one of the crystalline trees. Why was he feeling this way? After days of walking alone in this endless forest, he now felt weird. Sean hadn't needed any nourishment or rest during this period; now it felt like his body was getting it's revenge. He moaned and closed his eyes for only a moment and then opened them again.

It was so bright... The light hurt so bad... His eyes adjusted suddenly, and he looked into Dr. Fenway's blue eyes.

"I see you are finally awake. How are you feeling, Cavennaugh?" The older man leaned down and looked at the agent.

"I feel like a tank ran over me. What the hell happened?"

"Ah, this is a new one for me. You almost got blew up in that greenhouse. Remember?" Fenway chuckled to himself. The annoying soldier was all his to pester for the next few days; what fun! And the best part was that Cavennaugh couldn't move just yet; this just got better and better.

He moaned. "Yeah, but what injuries do I have to be in here?"

Fenway grinned. "You won't be moving just yet! Third degree burns on your back; you're aren't going anywhere anytime soon!"

Cavennaugh glared at Nigel. It seemed the doctor was enjoying seeing him in pain. But what was new? Annoying old... "Anyways, doc. Did you sedate me!"

"Uh, yeah. Why?"

Cavennaugh made a grab for Fenway's blue lab coat. "I COULD KILL YOU!" he roared as Fenway darted out of the way. Sean lost his balance and tumbled off his bed. Fenway shook his head at the agent. This was going to be a really, really long week...

"Why would you want to kill me? Its not like you want to be awakened when you got that bad of burns on your back! Plus, I needed you perfectly still." the older man muttered, motioning for Carpenter to help him get Cavennaugh back on the bed.

"I was stuck in the dream world for what seemed forever, thanks to you! You know how boring that is!"

"Nope and I don't want to find out." Fenway and Carpenter managed to get the poor, injured man back on the bed, and laid him on his stomach. "You've got to stay still, and make sure you don't tumble off the bed again. Okay? Here, this should keep you busy." Fenway handed him the forms that they were supposed to document their dreams on. "Fill it out."

----

Fenway was now signing papers; it wasn't that often in this particular lab that he got to release a patient. Yet, today he was. Lucas was now free to leave, having successfully beaten his bout of mutation.

Rachel was there as well. The darked haired woman was looking up at her fiancee lovingly. "We're going to go ahead with the wedding in two and a half weeks, isn't that right honey?"

He nodded, looking lovingly down at his future wife.

Fenway felt like he was going to gag; why, oh why, did two love birds choose to reside in his lab for the past three days? It was bad enough that they made out when they thought no one was looking, but those loving looks were way too much. Way too over the top for his taste. Fenway thought to himself, 'Was I ever like that? I hope not. That's disgusting.'

Fenway finished the last release paper and handed it to Lucas. "There you go, you may now leave my lab, and stay forever away from spending the night here ever again."

"Happily!" the young man said rather quickly. "Ah, Fenway. Rachel and I were talking; her dad can't come. You and J.T. are the only ones that are even remotely the same age, and we asked J.T. He sorta looked at us like we insulted him..."

"Asked what?" Fenway demanded, a gnawing feeling eating away at his soul. He hated weddings, with all the white everywhere, ugly bridesmaid dresses, the tears, and the awful speeches... The only good thing about weddings was the flowing river of alcohol he indulged himself in when he was required to participate in one. He had a feeling what the kid was going to ask him...

"Would you walk Rachel down the aisle? Please?" the eager young man asked him.

Fenway closed his eyes; of course Lucas would ask the old man this... "I'll think about it. Now get out of my lab, and I better not see you here again!"

Lucas nodded, ignoring the doctor's glare. Pegg got a huge smile on his face and took Rachel's hand in his leaving the lab. Before he got out the door he heard Fenway call out the words he didn't want to hear. "And keep in mind the rule we talked about a few weeks ago!"

Lucas winced; 'tis was a cruel world after all.

----

Molly was in her office shifting through the paper work the federal government made her do. She was trying to find the report that was supposed to be here! Now where was it?

She found in under her folder where she stored the original copy of her plan. She opened the report up and started to read. She had sent in a team of experts a day after the greenhouse incident, and they had finally turned up with results. Apparently the cult had abandoned the place where they lived and burned everything. It was now deemed safe to enter Apocrypha's secret city and to see what was left. It was a long shot, but it was better then nothing.

Suddenly she shivered. Kyle was now standing beside her. She glared at him, "Will I ever be able to do that?"

He shrugged. "I don't know the extent of your infection. We'll see in time." He peaked over her shoulder and looked at the papers she was holding, "You're planning on going there?"

She nodded. "We have to see if they left anything." Molly looked up at Kyle and noticed him looking uncomfortable. "Is there anything wrong?"

He shook his head. "No, there's nothing wrong, nothing wrong at all..."

Caffrey still stared at him; why should she trust this blued eyed man? She didn't know anything about him, only that his name was Kyle and he was infected. She was also unusually curious about him; it made her feel a little bit guilty... She shook her head to clear her thoughts and smiled. "Anyways Kyle, since you keep on popping up I've decided to ask you a few questions. Do you mind?"

He shook his head. "I don't mind, but I'm not necessarily giving you any answers."

"Alright then. What's your last name?" she asked.

"Smith." he simply answered.

She sighed. "Is this how it's going to be?"

He nodded. "You'll know when I tell you the truth."

"How did you get infected?"

He shrugged. "That I cannot tell you yet. You'll soon figure it out." His eyes gleamed when looking down at her with a sly smile on his face. "Good luck down there. When are you going?"

She looked back down at the forgotten report. "As soon as possible, and thanks for wishing me luck. I'm going to need it."

----

Molly walked into the med-lab. Lately she had found herself doing this often. This time she really had a legitimate reason. Fenway was sitting on his stool, peaking at his latest samples of whatever he looked at. She noticed Cavennaugh was looking a little bit pissed off, laying on his stomach writing something down.

She crossed the room to where the doctor was busy and leaned down and whispered "What's he writing down?"

"Oh, that. I made a slight mistake when I decided to sedate him." he paused, looking guilty.

"Well, what did you do?" she muttered.

"He's been stuck in that dream world ever since he went unconscious. He couldn't escape." Fenway looked back down into his microscope.

She nodded, and watched Fenway for a moment. When he was having a guilt complex, he always rubbed his hands through his hair. He was doing that now; she shook her head. "You couldn't have know Fenway, so don't blame yourself." Molly left the aging doctor to his thoughts and preceded her way to Cavennaugh.

Molly walked as quietly as she could in order not to disturb him just yet. She peered down at him; he was scribbling away, documenting the dream world. He should have found some interesting things to tell Fenway about; not that Caffrey herself always told the complete truth about that unknown world. Sean's writing was a small shorthand. It was extremely cramped on the page. He wrote quickly, trying to get the tale of his dream over as fast as possible.

She stood there watching him for several moments, waiting for him to finish. He finally laid the pen down, and raised his head to shout for Fenway. His eyes widened when he saw her there. "Hello, Molly."

She smiled and sat down on the edge of his bed. "So, Sean, Fenway told me you were stuck in-"

"Hell. Yes, I was." he said interrupting her.

"-the dream world." she continued. "So what happened?"

He grumbled. "I was stuck there, that's what happened. I spent days walking around in that damn forest, trying to find a way out. You know how boring that place can get!"

She laughed and patted his arm. "I usually do yoga or something like that while waiting to wake up. Find something constructive to do next time."

He glared at her. "The real reason why I'm here is to ask you something Sean. Do you think I should lead a team down to explore the caverns?"

He looked confused for a second, and then nodded. "That cult has abandoned their city? They left everything behind?"

She shook her head. "A couple of days ago I sent in a team of specialists that the government hires out occasionally. They have top level security clearances. They were informed what to look for. The place was burnt down, an underground fire."

He nodded. "Was there anything left at all?"

"The team said a few items escaped the fire, and recommended we come down there to see for ourselves. Who do you recommend off the red team to go down there with me?"

He rubbed his chin for a moment. "Take Lucas and Ramsey, if there's something to find among the ashes. They'll be the ones to find it, and take a medic in case something happens."

She nodded. "I'll think about it. Thanks Cavennaugh!" She jumped off the bed and went out the door.

Fenway looked up. "Did she say yoga?"

Sean nodded. "I think she did." He rubbed his chin again and left the doctor to ponder whatever thoughts were sailing through his head. Cavennaugh certainly wanted to be left alone while entertaining those thoughts.

----

"What do you mean that we're going into a burnt down underground city! Don't we have a choice about this!" Ramsey demanded.

"No you don't. You shouldn't worry, Ramsey. We are bringing a team of experts in with us; there's not going to be any problems." Caffrey explained.

Lucas nodded. "Can I call Rachel and tell her I might be late for dinner?" he asked.

She nodded. "Tell her you're spending the night at Threshold. This is going to take awhile boys, so bring those changes of clothes you keep here." She walked out of the room. Before she went out the door she called, "We're leaving within the hour so complete whatever you're doing at the moment!"

Ramsey let his head fall down onto his desk and let out a moan. "This is just great. We're going into a burned underground city! Who knows what booby traps lay in store for us. Charming, isn't it?"

Lucas blinked. "It could be perfectly safe, you never know!"

The dwarf just shook his head. "You actually believe that a cult that hates our guts and wants to infect the entire world wouldn't leave any booby traps in their old underground city for us to die when triggered? You've got to be kidding!"

"What is it about you, Ramsey, that you just can't wish for a happy ending?" Lucas questioned.

"Because there's no such thing as a happy ending. Hell, you'll find out soon enough." the dwarf answered him, finishing his work.

----

Fenway was now finishing up his own work for the day; he smiled. He could actually leave early! His mind went automatically to thoughts of the hotel bed he had cleansed with all sorts of antibacterial sprays; at least it was soft even if it smelt of disinfectant.

He got off his stool and walked over to the bored-looking Cavennaugh. The agent looked up at him. "What the hell do you want?"

"You're the last on my list of things to do today." Fenway started to change his bandages.

Suddenly a stab of pain went through Cavennaugh's back! "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!" yelled Sean, gritting his teeth.

Fenway snickered, and held up a finger. "All I did was poke you. Your pain receptors are functioning pretty good."

Sean growled,. "Don't you have to test things like that! Something more practical then poking a burn with your finger!"

Fenway nodded. "Yes, but this is much more fun." The older doctor walked away laughing to himself. Yes, it was good to be the one to do the picking... "Want the lights on?"

"YES!" shouted Cavennaugh as Fenway went out the door. The lights went off anyway. "This is how he gets me back isn't it?" he asked to the staring Libby. She just blinked and went back to rubbing her swollen belly.

----

Lucas had a new BlackBerry in his hands, checking his e-mail in the back seat. Ramsey was snoring, and Molly had the radio all the way up as they drove to PA that night.

Ramsey woke up to hear Japanese music playing in the car; it sounded pretty... But the lyrics had much to be desired for; he wondered if Molly even knew what exactly was being said.

"Can you turn that down!" he shouted over the speakers. J-rock wasn't exactly the best thing to wake up to in the middle of the night.

Molly turned the chaotic music down to a reasonable level. "Happy now!"

Ramsey shook his head. He could swear that he could hear a pout in Molly's voice. Damn, she was strange when she was away from work. "How far are we from the complex?"

She looked down at the G.P.S. she had attached to the dash. "About five minutes, the team will be there."

He nodded. He wasn't exactly looking forward to exploring an underground city. What need was there for a linguist/mathematician down there?

Ramsey closed his eyes, hoping to get a few more minutes of sleep before they arrived. He couldn't sleep though with Japanese music ringing in his ears; he kept on translating it. "Where did you get this crap?"

"HEY! I like, okay? I got introduced to it the last time I was in Tokyo."

He shook his head once more. Ramsey had thought Caffrey was strange before... He looked over at Lucas who was still messing with that damn BlackBerry. He grabbed it out of the kids hands to snap him out of his digital trance. Lucas blinked for a second, suddenly becoming aware of the world around him. "And you say I have the problem with addictions!"

----

They pulled into the parking lot and got out of the car. Molly walked across the asphalt, her heels clicking on the pavement. The boys followed her as she entered the above ground building; it hadn't been effected by the fire at all. They heard talking as they entered. There were four people wearing heavy Ops gear but with helmets.

"Uh, Molly, are we going to need armor to go in there?" muttered Lucas.

She shook her head and said, "I instructed them to keep on their helmets and not tell us their names."

"Why?" asked Ramsey.

"Incase we become infected one day, we need to protect the identity of those that help Threshold. That's why." Both men blinked, realizing that made perfect sense. They continued to walk over to the armored men. "We're from Threshold," said Molly, going up to the team.

They nodded. "Where's the proof of identity that you said you'd have over the phone?" one of the men said.

"Of course." She reached for her wrist and took off her watch and handed it to the man.

He examined it. "Is this an original 1969 Tag Heuer Monaco?"

She nodded. "Exactly as I said."

He nodded. "This is Threshold. C'mon men, let's show em' around."

----

They were now inside the cult's lair; it was immense... "So exactly how big is this city?" Molly asked, looking around at the scorched walls.

"The city is over fifteen miles long. I seriously don't know how they built the complex without any local residents noticing."

Ramsey spoke up. "Well, that's sorta easy to answer... There are no local residents within several miles of the above building. They simply chose a part of rural PA and built the complex without any interruption."

The team stopped in the middle of the hall. "Look at the char marks on this wall. We haven't been able to figure out what its built out of yet. If you look closely you can see there wasn't much structural damage; we've never seen anything like this."

Lucas ran his hand down the wall. "It feels familiar, Caffrey!"

She nodded. "So it's the aliens?"

Lucas and Ramsey froze. "Ah- are they supposed to know about that?"

"Yes, the defense department was briefed about Threshold a couple of weeks ago when the alien threat started to escalate. To prepare incase we can't stop the invasion, they choose individuals out of all the armed forces. They put them into teams to maximize their specialties. This teams specialty is underground reconnaissance."

They nodded. "We mainly hunted along the borders for tunnels that drug runners built. Now that was a fun job!"

Lucas kept on feeling the wall with his eyes closed. "I know this. It's so familiar... It's calming, serene... Its most definitely alien made."

She nodded. "Is there anything else left?"

They nodded. "Most of the furniture withstood the fire as well. We think it's made out of the same stuff; if it's those aliens, how did they bring the stuff with them?"

"They didn't." muttered Molly. "Whenever someone becomes infected, they get the alien part of them, the desire to spread the infection. Also they become fimilar with some alien technologies and methods of doing things..." Remembering Park's attempt to spread the mutation, and Libby's studio with the glass forest...

"Its all part of their plan," continued Lucas. "All of this seems familiar to me. I was almost completely infected just a few days ago... I dreamed of stuff like this..." He shuddered, remembering just a little bit of what he had been shown.

"Show us what survived."

----

They entered another room; in this area there were slightly charred chairs and desks. "I think the person who used this as an office thought that this stuff would burn. It actually protected what was inside the desk drawers; it wasn't much though." One of the team members jerked open the creaking desk and pulled out a few things. He handed them to Molly.

She started to leaf through the papers. They were mainly orders to buy certain fertilizers and plant seeds in the bulk. "Is this all there is?"

"Nope, there's a picture or two in that pile of orders."

She started to leaf through the papers faster, letting them drift to the singed floor. Finally she pulled out one of the pictures and stared at a ghost...

It was titled department heads, but the people were not actually named. There in the front, towards the left of the frame was someone so familar...

It was her.

----

The forest was especially quiet today, as Sean walked around without injuries. Why did it seem that this place got more homey feeling everytime he visited?

He touched one of the trees; the surface was so smooth. He couldn't resist it sometimes... Why was it like this?

He didn't want to stay in this place; it was completely alien to him.

It scared him that it felt like home, sometimes.

But what scared him the most was that his home felt alien...

----

Molly sat in her car, her head in her hands. Why? She shook her head frantically. It just couldn't be. The photo had to be fake, there was nothing more to it. Yet, Molly knew. She just knew that it wasn't fake...

She looked down at it again, her shoulders shaking while peering at the girl. The long waves of dark hair, dark green eyes, around the same height, with the same figure except a bit more slight. The girl even had the same skin, except she appeared to be a bit younger.

It looked like her five years ago. Molly uncleanced her fist; sweat was dripping out of it. Her breath was coming fast; it wasn't possible!

She needed to look closer. Reaching into her purse she pulled out the small magnifying glass from a small toolkit she kept nowadays. The lense of the glass was just big enough to hold in her eye; she put it there and peered down, looking for something that she wouldn't have left at home.

The clothes weren't hers; she could already tell that. She didn't dress so severely as the girl in the picture, with a long skirt that showed no skin, and a shirt that contrasted sharply. It was the wrist Molly was most interested in. There it was. The girl had the same watch, but that was impossible! Five years ago Caffrey had been touring Asia with another Bird Flu plan! She had spent the entire year over there... Was she sure it was even taken five years ago?

Molly know looked everywhere for a date. Finally in the lower right corner in extremely small font there it was... The picture wasn't even a year old...

Molly leaned back in her seat; how could this be? A picture of a girl in this cult, a girl that was a department head no less! A girl that looked almost exactly like her; her eyes were a bit darker though, and she was slightly smaller then Molly. She even had the same watch!

Now Molly really became afraid; what was going on here!

----

The next morning Fenway came back into his lab whistling an annoying tune. Cavennaugh looked up from the book he was reading. "Do you have to do that!" The only response he got out of Fenway was a louder whistle.

"Are you listening to me!" shouted Sean.

"Nope." said Fenway who made his way across the room to check on the bandages. "Its healing nicely. You might get away without really heavy scaring!"

Then the jolt of pain returned. Cavennaugh winced. "Why do you do that? What did I ever do to you!"

Fenway laughed. "Remember the time you shoved me against the wall? This is why you don't tick off doctors; it always comes back and bites you in the ass."He finished changing the agents bandages and looked down. "What are you reading?"

"Something Lucas left here..." He flipped the book over so the doctor could see.

"Ugh, theology." muttered Fenway, walking away shaking his head. "Not my favorite thing to read."

"Its not mine either, so could you find something a little bit more entertaining? I really don't enjoy reading something that predicts fire and brimstone for my actions!"

Fenway went into his office for a minute and riffled around for a minute. He soon came back with a few selections. "Since I've started my career, I've kept books in my office just in case I have to put up with a patient who's well enough to be up, but not out of my care." He handed them to Cavennaugh, who started to look at them. There was books on baseball, history, exc.

He choose a book on baseball, and started to read.

Meanwhile across the lab, Fenway was busy checking on his samples when Whitaker walked in.

"Fenway, do you have those results yet?"

"Which ones?" muttered the doctor, still checking samples.

"The ones on the infectee's baby." the ex-senator said, looking bored.

"The test won't be in for another week; they take awhile. That's the downside for that particular test, but it's by far the safest other then ultrasound."

"Just hurry up. I want to know if the baby is an infectee or not." The national security advisor left the lab.

Fenway rolled his eyes; the ex-senator should have known better then trying to speed up medicine. Things such as curing people and testing for results took time. Yet time was a valuable commodity; there wasn't much of it to go around now...

----

Later that afternoon Cavennaugh was sleeping peacefully, Libby was being quiet, and Gunneson wasn't stirring at usual. Fenway looked down at all the people he had to care for; for some reason he was quite fond of the job of caring for actual patients instead of cell cultures. There was some downside's to this though; namely cell cultures didn't talk back, patients did.

Right now, though, everything was nice and perfect. It was quiet and peaceful. He didn't have to put up with a grouchy, restless Cavennaugh, or a freaky infectee.

Yet, he had to put up with the woman who walked through the door. It was Caffrey, again.

Her head was hanging, and she looked like she'd been crying. "What are you doing back here early?" he asked.

She walked up to him and handed him the picture; confusion crossed the doctor's face. He turned and looked at her, "What do I do with this?"

"Just look at it. Do you see what I see?" The doctor grabbed for his glasses and peered closely at the picture. He almost stopped breathing. "Is this a joke?"

She shook her head. "I don't know how this could be... Do you think-"

"She has to be related to you. Look at me with the same expression." Fenway said, looking between the picture and Caffrey. Caffrey froze her face and appeared stoic just like the girl in the picture. Fenway's eyes darted back and forth. He opened up his desk drawer and took out a magnifying glass.

He placed it against the picture and looked even closer; the bone structure was even the same. The girl in the picture had the same delicate features, even down to the high checkbones. The eyes were slightly different though, being a darker hue of green. The hair was longer, flowing in a cascade down the girl's shoulders; it was the same, dark waves as Molly's. The girl also looked maybe a inch or two smaller, and appeared to have a more slender frame then Caffrey. She also had the same pale complexion; her lips were as almost as full as Caffrey's. It was undeniable. The person in the picture had to be related to Caffrey. Just had to! "I think we have a doppleganger on or hands, or you have a little sister."

She nodded. "I thought so..."

"Hey, this looks like your watch!" He looked up at her. There was tears falling down her face now. "Caffrey, is this why you look so upset?"

She nodded once more, sniffling. "Yeah... I am a bit upset..."

He pointed to the stool next to him. "Time to talk."

She sat down and listened. It was strange with her being quiet.

"Listen, Cavennaugh told me that your dad ran out on you. Is that true?"

"Yeah, he left when I was four. All I have is this watch." She held up her wrist.

He nodded. "It's the same watch as in the picture. I can tell because it's very distinct on such a small wrist. Listen Caffrey," he looked very serious now. "This isn't going to affect work, is it?"

"No. I'm just a bit emotional. That's all." she muttered.

"If this affects work, I'm going to have to put you on medical leave."

She looked shocked. "Why?"

"It's in your protocols, remember?"

Caffrey blinked. "You read them finally!"

"Too far Caffrey."

She smiled before leaving. Cavennaugh propped himself up on his elbows. "You just made her happy, Fenway. Did you tell her that on purpose?"

"Too far goes for you too," the doctor growled.

"Hell, you are a nice guy. Aren't you!"

"Don't make me sedate you again."

----

"Lucas, what do you make of this?" Ramsey called out.

Lucas walked over to where the dwarf was standing, and looked at the wall closer. "Its a mural. That's all Ramsey."

"Look closer, dumbass." the dwarf muttered. "Isn't that the fractual pattern?"

The young man peered at the mural that depicted the world; standing in front of the circular globe was a person with his hand streched out. In the palm of his hand was painted the fractual pattern. Lucas stared at the man. The man had the crazed look of one of the infectees. Instead of a serene expression one would expect, it was a violent look he wore. His lips were cruelly twisted, his face was contorted as well. He wore clothes of a blood color, and around his neck was a charm shaped like a triskele.

Ramsey and Lucas both tilted their heads and looked at the mural from that way. "It seems like it changes everytime we view it different..."

Now they saw the face looked fierce, snarling mad.

"They seem to almost worship this man," muttered Ramsey.

"Why do you say that?"

"His face is painted all over everything... That's why."

"I wonder who he is. The way he's painted; it's almost as if he's a religious symbol..."

----

Fenway was sipping on yet another cup of joe when he walked into his lab. He heard a voice; Nigel peeked quietly around the corner. Cavennaugh was there, propped up on his elbows talking on the phone; the agent laughed.

"Cynthia! You shouldn't have done that to the poor man! You could give him a heart attack!"

Fenway got a puzzled look on his face and thought. 'Who the hell is Cynthia!'

Cavennaugh chuckled again. "Alright, see you later, honey." He hung up the phone.

The doctors eyes widened; 'honey?' he thought. Then another realization struck him. Caffrey had seen infatuated with the agent as of later... Poor Molly.

He shook his head and left the room. He couldn't be in the same room as someone who lead on a woman...

The older man walked down the hall, a familar corridor now. The break room was too quiet to reside in when Lucas and Ramsey were not around so he didn't go there. Actually he didn't know where to go. He walked further down the hall to where some more offices were. Nigel thought about going and talking with Molly. Of course he wouldn't mention Sean's phone call; that was in bad taste. It would be nice though, to have an actual human conversation with someone. He went towards the office, but he heard a male voice coming from it.

Fenway stopped in his tracks, and listened for a moment. Were they both playing each other!

Then it hit him. He didn't recognize the voice. An overwhelming sense of curiosity took him over, and he peered around the corner into the office. There was no one there, except Caffrey; the phone wasn't in her hand either. Was he going crazy finally?

"Hi Caffrey." he sat down and took another sip out of his coffee.

"You didn't bring me any!" she said indignantly.

A few minutes into their usual banter, she started to notice that he kept on looking at her funny. "What's wrong, Fenway?"

He shook his head. "Nothing. Nothing at all."

----

Molly was now stirring the cup of tea Fenway had actually fetched for her before he had headed back to his lab; that man was sure acting strange lately. She wondered what was up with him; hell, he wasn't even being his old sarcastic self.

Once more she took out the charred photo and looked down at the girl. It was strange how the past always came back to haunt her.

The woman looked almost exactly like her. It was almost as if this was planned from the very beginning. The woman couldn't be anything but either a clone, relative, or a freaky case of a doppleganger.

If it was a clone, which it couldn't possibly be, then they would have had to get her genetic material somehow. She could safely rule this out, because they would have had to create the clone years before. Surely, the infectees hadn't came up with a way to speed up the aging process! But of course, the aliens were so advanced that they could do the "supernatural."

If the woman was a relative, then she had to be the daughter of her renegade father. No one else could look so much like her, any other way.

If the woman was a doppleganger, Molly didn't know what to say. What was the chances that a woman would be born into something Molly was going to one day oppose? Plus, they had identical watches! There was no way this could possible!

Yet, it was.

The girl hadn't faded from the picture; she was still there staring back at her. This mystery girl seemed familar, so similar...

Molly shook her head violently, stirring herself from her thoughts. She had better things to do after all! Lucas and Ramsey were supposed to soon come back here. That's when she made her decision...

----

Lucas propped his feet up on the lab desk, laughing at a joke Ramsey was telling when Fenway and Caffrey walked in. "What did you guys find?" Molly asked.

"Oh we found plenty!" said Lucas, pointing at a screen. It lit up, and there was the mural.

"Hey Fenway! You're into the whole cult thing, what do you make out of this!" Ramsey said.

Fenway looked closely at the painting. "The earth," he muttered. "Did you guys notice something about it?"

"Yeah, what's that ring around it?" asked Lucas.

"You of all people should know it." Fenway said.

"Uh, why?" the young man asked.

"The limited confines of our world, in your particular religion, Lucas. It's an Ouroboros, the dragon that's always swallowing his tail..." The doctor shuddered.

Then they all turned and looked at him. "Exactly how do you know about symbol's like this, and cults?" Ramsey inquired.

The doctor blinked for a second before he smiled a little. "One of my wives... Let's not go there. It's old history." He looked back at the screen. "He's wearing red... It could mean God, war, even luck. Red is universal in it's meanings." He looked closer, "The fact that when you tilt your head, you see another facial expression. The fact that the expression is always violent means trouble for us. That rules luck out for the meaning of the robe. He's holding the fractual pattern, which reminds me of a triskele. And here he stands in front of the Earth. The meaning is clear, even though the Ouroboros represents both sides of nature but not those forces in conflict. The whole thing though shows that their intentions are not friendly."

"Why aren't you one of those freaks that haunt old bookstores, living solely on Starbucks?" asked Ramsey.

Fenway glared at the dwarf. "Because of the draft. That's why. Either I went to college and do what I knew best, or I got sent to 'nam. I chose the one that I didn't get shot at. Not true now..."

"Well, I think it's time that we all go home and get some rest." Molly said.

----

Molly was walking through the forest of glass, her nightgown flowing behind her. Gunneson was standing before her in the clearing, seemingly waiting for her nightly appearence.

"Do you wait here every night?" she asked, now standing beside him.

He ignored her for a moment, looking up at the alien sky. "It used to scare me as well, Molly. I promise you, though, that these skies will become familar one day."

"I doubt that," she muttered, peering up at the stars. They seemed more clear here, above this forest. "Why don't they twinkle?"

He laughed. "Who said this place was even real? This is just a representation of the world that your's will become."

She stared at him. "Why would I want Earth to become even more soiled then it already is!"

He shook his head. "Does this place look like it's been wasted? Look around you. This is true nature! A nature not created by the universe, or God, as you would put it!" He raised his hands to the heaven. "This a world made by us! Not decided by cosmic happenings, but by living, sentient creatures! Don't you see the beauty in it!"

"No it isn't!" she whispered, backing away from him.

"Are you afraid of progress, of change? So afraid that you deny yourself the real truth?" he said, following her.

She backed further away shaking her head at him. "You call changing what is meant to be a truth? I don't see it that way!"

"You're denying yourself the greatest gift man has ever been given. You do realize that, don't you? Do you know how many doors it would open up for you? How far mankind can go with the knowledge, this mutation would provide you? Molly, you are undeniably one of the smartest people I've have ever had the chance to speak with." He looked into her wide eyes. "But you are nothing compared to the most stupid of them. This is your one chance."

"A chance? What do you mean?" she asked.

"A chance to better yourself, to become more then a mere human." He reached out his hand.

Molly looked down at the outstretched hand; in its palm appeared the fractual pattern. It glowed errily there in the dark; it was tempting... So very tempting... She started to reach,-

----

The phone was ringing. She made a grab for it. "Hello?" she whispered hoarsely into it.

"Molly, its Kyle. Sorry to interupt your dream. Thought you might appreciate it." he said, laughing.

She blinked, and ran a hand through her hair. Rubbing her eyes she answered, "Yeah, I do. I want to go back to the place. It doesn't have guard there at the moment."

"Why do you want to go to the cult's home?"

"I need to look at something closer."

"Alright, I'll come and pick you up. See you in a hour."

----

Lucas kissed Rachel gently; screw Fenway's rules. Fenway wasn't here at the moment, he would never know. Would he?

It had been over a month since he'd last gotten to be with Rachel for any meaningful length of time! It was his right, wasn't it?

She looked up at him with those mischievous, dark eyes. "Why have you been avoiding me since you came here, Lucas?" she whispered in his ear.

"I was under orders. I still am..." he muttered, starting to kiss her again.

"You don't have to follow orders all of time..." she managed to get out.

"MM-hhhmmm... I don't." When tempted by the devil with such strong force, it's best to give in to human frailties and emotion...

----

They walked quietly through the dark halls. The light from the flashlights casted weird shadows on the strange walls. It was creepy. Molly shivered, feeling goose bumps rise up on her skin. She hated places like this... They reminded her of- she shook her head. Best not to remember that sort of thing in a place like this. Why had she even came down here anyways!

Kyle grabbed her arm. "Molly, if you don't like this place we can go back to the surface. Your team went over every bit of this place!"

"No! I got to do this without them; it's something from the dream... They- no I missed it." She continued on walking.

Her footsteps echoed in these hollowed unnatural halls. She cringed at the noise her heels made in this place. Molly moved the flashlight everywhere she could. She had to find it! Then she saw it; she went over to the mural on the wall.

It was partway covered in ash. She remembered vaguely Lucas saying the military had sent in a couple of art experts to look at it... They had said to leave it alone while they removed the ash and cinders in order to better preserve the art.

She thought otherwise. Molly put her hand onto the gritty surface and started to wipe away the smokey-smelling material. She wiped around where that dragon thing Fenway had told her about, that dragon that was eating its own tale or whatever Fenway had said about it. Slowly she noticed something now that the ash was better cleared away. Caffrey tilted her head. It seemed like it was losing it's grip on it's tail. The confines of the world were opening up...

Then she heard it. Footsteps! Kyle and her both grabbed ahold of their guns. He put a finger to his lips, signaling for her to be quiet.

He walked quietly towards the sound. He froze when he noticed light coming from around the corner. It was a floating globe, shining brightly in the darkness like a minature sun. Both of them cringed at the brightness of it; temporarily, they were blinded. They heard the footsteps stop. Molly squinted her eyes and saw a cloaked figure standing there.

It then ran, faster then Molly had ever seen anyone run. Molly and Kyle tore after the person, knowing... Knowing if they caught the person, it would be a great find for Threshold. It could possibly give them the upperhand!

Molly became winded quickly, but forced herself to run. Her legs hurt so bad; it was like needles were being forcefully stabbed into her skin over and over again. She struggled to keep up with the speedy Kyle; she managed to look up for a moment and noticed the figure was losing speed.

Then the person stumbled. Kyle was upon the person in a minute. He jerked the person off the ground, and pushed it into the wall. The figure let out a gasp. Kyle ripped the hood of the cloak off and stared. Dark locks had fallen and were now hanging around the person's face. The woman lifted her dark emerald eyes and stared at him. He stepped backwards, letting her go and threw a look at Molly who took a step forward.

The woman started to turn towards the hallway again, but Molly reached out and grabbed her arm. "Who are you?" she asked the dark haired woman.

The woman looked down at her booted feet. "I could ask the same of you."

"My name is Molly Caffrey. Now will you please tell me your name!" Molly sounded desperate; she needed to know this. It didn't matter if this was the enemy or not...

The girls head turned quickly around and stared at Molly. The orb came floating back towards them. It lit both of their faces. "My name is Ravenese Caffrey..." she whispered, her similar eyes wide in shock. "I- I got to leave now!" She turned and fled. Kyle made like he was going to chase after her, but Molly grabbed his arm.

"Leave her be. Let her go this time..."

"Why? She's a memeber of the cult." he muttered.

"I think she's my sister... I'll let her be for now." Molly whispered, watching the light fade...

----

Ramsey walked into the bar. Sure he wasn't supposed to be here. But who ever would find out?

He entered the establishment. It was a nice, smoked filled room. Just like he liked it. He headed over to the bar and asked for a beer. The bartender blinked, surprised to see a dwarf in his establishment, but still served him. Ramsey hated it when people did that; did everyone have problems with small people in this town!

He sat there, just drinking his beer, lost in his thoughts. It was strange how things happened... First he was abducted from the strip club he frequented often, then he was whisked off to this city, then taken aboard the USS Bighorn... Then everything else happened; he shivered and pondered some more on the question he'd been dying to ask. Why me?

He heard a rustle as someone settled on to the stool next to him. He looked up and his eyes widened in shock. "What the hell are you doing here!"

"An old man can't have a drink?" Fenway muttered as he settled in his seat.

Ramsey started to get uncomfortable. He had a bad feeling Fenway was going to play with his head. "I thought you didn't drink, Fenway."

Nigel laughed, and ordered a beer. "Who says I can't indulge myself sometimes? The question is Ramsey, what are you doing here?"

"Uh... I can't have a drink at all now?" The dwarf was feeling really uncomfortable now.

"You can drink, just drink maturely."

"How did you find me in the first place?" Ramsey demanded.

"I didn't. I came in for a drink. You were here though, so I decided to come and talk." Fenway took a large gulp of his beer. "I've heard from a little bird that you've got a few problems. Wanna talk about them?"

"I don't have any problems. So I don't want to talk about problems." muttered Ramsey.

Fenway rose his eyebrows. "You don't call losing ten grand a problem?"

"That's none of your business. I don't want to talk about it."

Fenway sat quietly for a few minutes, finishing up his beer. He threw a few bucks down and started to get up. "Ramsey, we all have to face our demons sometimes. It's better to face them when you can break them, not when they'll break you."

----

to be continued...


	5. Head Trip Part One

Extended author's note: When I started to write this chapter I had not yet heard anything about the episodes the Crossing, Escalation, Vigilante, and Alienville. So things are going to vary in order for me to maintain my plot, I will add in the new characters at different points though. I will still be keeping with the shows main plot as well; if you do not know what the reason behind the alien's infecting people is, then go see my profile where it will be explained in further detail. Thank you so much for even reading this far. I will get to certain scenes later on, though. 

Beta'd by Ethos. Note: I've basically just beta'd her grammar and sentence structure, so everything else will remain intact for her artistic purposes. Hope you enjoy the chapter Smile.

Last time...

"How did you find me in the first place?" Ramsey demanded.

"I didn't. I came in for a drink. You were here though, so I decided to come and talk." Fenway took a large gulp of his beer. "I've heard from a little bird that you've got a few problems. Wanna talk about them?"

"I don't have any problems. So I don't want to talk about problems." muttered Ramsey.

Fenway rose his eyebrows. "You don't call losing ten grand a problem?"

"That's none of your business. I don't want to talk about it."

Fenway sat quietly for a few minutes, finishing up his beer. He threw a few bucks down and started to get up. "Ramsey, we all have to face our demons sometimes. It's better to face them when you can break them, not when they'll break you."

----

Chapter Five: Head Trip Part One

Molly was curled up on her couch, still staring at the picture. It was hard to believe but the girl shown there was real... A girl that looked almost like Caffrey, but yet she was not...

Molly shook her head and sat up. There were other things to do after all. She still hadn't completely unpacked from moving into another house in D.C. A four hour trip to Richmond, Virginia every night wasn't practical after all. The phone rang suddenly; she rushed over to the phone and answered.

"Hello?"

"The test results are in. You might want to come down here." Fenway's voice echoed in her ear.

"What test results!" she demanded.

"Libby's. What other ones do you think I was talking about? These are the results from the Amniocentesis test are in. Remember, it took two weeks to get the results? Now before I divulge anymore information, come into the office. Please." Fenway promptly hung up the phone leaving Molly alone on the other end.

She hung up the phone and grabbed her keys...

----

She walked into Fenway's lab about twenty minutes later. He was in his office again sipping on coffee. He looked up at her with weary eyes; he handed her a piece of paper.

She unfolded it and read it. Her eyes widened. "It.. It's a human!"

Fenway's eyes suddenly sparkled as he shook his head. "Yes. Its human."

"How is this possible!"

"I have no idea. I was just as surprised when I got the results in."

"What are we going to do with the child though!" she muttered.

Fenway shrugged. "That's not my problem. I'm the one who has to deliver it, WHICH is a problem."

She laughed. "Good luck, Fenway."

"I've already had to deliver a kid before... After that I swore never to deal with the process again; please don't make me." he muttered.

She just smiled at him. "Would I do that?"

----

Molly walked into the command center. This was usually where Whitaker lurked during the day when he wasn't on Capital Hill. There he was sitting at the round table presiding over it like an arrogant god. She rolled her eyes. Whitaker was in one of those moods today. She approached him; he looked up with a glazed over bored look. "What is it Caffrey?"

She allowed a smile to cross her face. "Just good news."

"Well, spit it out then." he muttered.

"Libby's baby isn't infected. Fenway just got the labs back." she said.

He merely nodded, before looking back down at his papers. "Good. Figure out what you are going to do with it."

She nodded before she left the room.

----

She walked back into Fenway's lab; he was there checking on Cavennaugh's wounds. "You are lucky I had supplies to give you a skin graft. Plus you seem to be healing quite nicely. Too nicely in fact Cavennaugh..."

"What do you mean by that!" the agent demanded.

Molly gave Fenway a curious look. "What are you suggesting Fenway?"

Fenway smiled. "Nothing, actually. I already ran a blood test just in case he was becoming an infectee; he's fine for the moment."

Cavennaugh looked up at the older man. "You tried to get me worried on purpose, didn't you?"

Fenway smirked. "Would I do that?"

"YES!" chorused Cavennaugh and Molly at the same time.

Fenway now looked at Molly. "What are you doing back in here anyways?"

"Whitaker said we have to figure out what to do with it. So the baby stays for now; but Fenway, someone is going to have to take care of it!" she glared at the doctor.

"No way in hell. I've already raised one kid. That's more then enough for me." Fenway shook his head at her. "You're going to have to find a way to raise it, not me."

Both of them blinked, then Molly remembered Fenway had a son. "Oh! I forgot about that. How long has it been since you saw him?"

Fenway glared. "That's none of your business!" he said as he went out the room...

Cavennaugh looked at Molly. "I wonder what's up with the doc?"

She shrugged. "Has he released you yet?"

He nodded. "Just now." He sat up and grabbed his shirt and threw over his nicely toned chest. "Now help me to my car, please?"

She laughed as she helped him down off the table; he groaned. "Is my back always going to hurt like this?"

She shrugged as she helped him out the door...

----

Lucas put his head down and groaned out loud. "We're already married Rachel! Do we seriously have to go through all of this trouble to have a big not-secret wedding!"

She glared at him, her eyes narrowing dangerously. "I've always wanted a big wedding! And I'm going to get one, so play along. Okay?"

"But do I have to sit through it?"

"Yes! I need you to choose colors! Its not that hard!" she demanded, her narrow dark eyes flashing.

"Yes it is! I could care less about colors. And if its not that hard, why don't you choose them?" he asked, running a nervous hand through his kinky curls.

"Because I want you to participate in the planning! Plus you have a couple of days off, now please help!"

"Alright, alright..." He looked back down at the samples. He could care less about these damn wedding colors; who planned out a wedding in such extent that you had to keep it to a color scheme? So far they had chosen a creamy ivory, and a nice deep azure which also matched the flowers in the bouquets, and everywhere. He really didn't have anytime for this...

"Are you sure your father can't walk you down the aisle?"

She laughed at that, and got serious rather quickly. "You know my father hates you. He always has, and always will. So don't bring it up, okay?"

"I still don't understand why your father hates me..." he muttered.

"Its not only you. He hates my sister's husband as well, remember?" she said glaring at her new husband.

"Yeah, but does it have to be Fenway that walks you down the aisle?"

She laughed. "Who else? J.T. is the only other old dude that we know! And he refuses to do it..."

"That's true, but Fenway's an arrogant jackass!" he murmured.

Rachel laughed and tackled her husband. "So? My father is too!"

----

Cavennaugh settled into his bed. Cynthia looked down at him and laughed. "Sean, you shouldn't have pushed yourself this hard!"

"I didn't push myself! I almost got blown up!"

She laughed. "Whatever Sean. You pushed yourself, AGAIN!"

He looked up and glared at her; he tried to roll over on his stomach. She giggled as he failed. "So how long do you have off Sean?"

He groaned. "I hate med-leave... Fenway forced me into it; he said I couldn't do anything with burns on my back."

"Well, how long do I have to play nurse?"

He glared at her again, his eyes narrowing. "Is it that bad playing nurse?"

She nodded. "Let's see, the last time you got hurt on the job I had to end up playing nurse for two months. During that time you whined like a little baby, bitched half the time... I had to help you around the house, and not to mention that infamous hole in the wall from where you hit it in frustration. Now how long do you have off?"

He sighed; of course Cynthia was right. Sean knew he was a bit too much to handle sometimes... "Two more weeks. Then I can possibly come back to work."

She moaned. "You mean I have to deal with you for two weeks!"

"Its not that bad, is it?" he growled.

Cynthia reached up and brushed the dark hair that was hanging in her face, grinned and suddenly rolled him on his stomach. "Well if I have to play the nurse ever again, you'll regret it."

Sean sighed; two weeks of pure hell were coming up...

----

Fenway was laying on his bed restless as usual. He strained to roll over and grab the phone. The room service always placed the damn thing too far out of reach... He wondered what time it was in Florida as he dialed the number. "Hi Janice. Where's Darwin?"

"Do you know what time it is!"

Fenway turned his head and looked at the clock; the digital numbers were just a mere wash of red. So he reached for his glasses; he plopped them on his face and took note of the time. "A little past midnight, why?"

"Darwin has been asleep for three hours that's why!" Janice's voice sounded cranky.

"You still send him to bed at nine? Janice he's fourteen, believe me. He isn't asleep, just give him the damn phone." he said wearily. Sometimes, no he always hated dealing with his ex-wives...

"Why should I?" she demanded. Her voice becoming haughty.

"Because it's in the custody agreement. I can talk to him when I want to... Unless you want to go back to court of course, Janice." Both had won in some parts of the cases, but of course both had lost in other areas. This was one of his few major victories; she couldn't stop him from talking to his son.

He heard her go marching up the stairs of their former dream home, and open their boy's door. "Darwin?" he heard her say.

"Yeah mom?" he heard his son's voice, already starting to deepen. He smiled at this; his little boy was starting to become a man.

"Why aren't you asleep!" he heard Janice yell.

"Uh-mom. I never go to sleep before one. Hey is that dad on the phone." Fenway heard his son jump out of bed and snatch the phone from his mother. "You can go now mom." He then heard Darwin manage to get Janice out the room.

"Hi dad!" He sounded excited.

"Why is your mother making you go to bed at nine?" he inquired.

"We have church in the morning." He sounded sour.

"Your mother is still making you go to church? STILL?" Fenway said sitting up. He cringed as his back popped.

"Yeah. I told her I didn't want to go. But she still makes me. Dad, why can't I live with you?"

"I'm sorry. If I was still working at the university, I would happily let you live with me. But I'm not Dar, and I've already explained why."

"But dad! I'm fourteen, aren't I old enough to decide which one of you I get to live with!"

"Under normal circumstances yes; hell, I'd take you in in a heartbeat. But I'm sorry. This really wasn't my choice. NASA had to send me up here."

"Come on! I haven't even seen you since September! And you promised you'd take me to that launch!"

Fenway winced. "Its not like I wanted to miss it either... Listen, Christmas is just around the corner. I might be able to talk my boss into letting me off a couple of days. How would you like that?"

His kid sounded ecstatic, "That would be cool."

"Anyways, what were you doing in there for three hours?"

"Uh... I was reading that true crimes book you sent me."

Fenway rolled his eyes; why were teenage boys so disturbing? Then he remembered how he was at that age, and shook his head. Teenagers.

----

Caffrey laid down. It was finally time to get some rest... She closed her emerald eyes and just waited for sleep to overtake her; as of late sleep had came easy. Of course it was probably something to do with increased theta waves...

Suddenly she was standing in a field of stars. It was not the typical dream she had been having; she turned quickly and looked around her. Her white nightgown spun with the force. She didn't topple as she should have if she was really standing in space. Gravity still seemed to exist here. All there was were stars; they blazed, unaffected by atmospheric distortions. Molly looked underneath her feet; she was standing on nothing. She was just floating there, there in the midst of the void.

She stared at these fiery orbs of light, they were everywhere! The stars were so much more brilliant in space, then they were on Earth. Suddenly she was compelled to turn around, she couldn't explain it... Two stars not far in the distance were orbiting one another. They speed up as the orbit started to bring in the two stars, the massive gravity was making them... Her eyes widened as the orbits went faster and faster, and finally they touched. A flare of light so intense that it blinded her resulted, and wave after wave hit her...

Then suddenly she was standing in the forest. This seemed to be a different sort of forest, lush by even Earth's standards. The plants were not the linear crystals, but were like ferns and the such. Big leafy plants, and tall willowy trees were prominent. She turned once more. looking around her; she felt if her heart was going to explode in her chest. Molly looked up into the sky; there were the two stars colliding. Then the waves hit here too. It felt like she was being ripped apart. Everything went blank... When she woke up she was now in the glass forest again... What had just happened?

----

Lucas woke up after seeing the stars collide in the sky. He hauled himself off the dusty ground. This was unusual; he'd never had a dream this vivid. He shuddered, remembering the waves that had passed through him, because he recognized what it was; cosmic radiation.

He looked around, hoping to see someone, hell, anyone would do by now. He started to walk around the forest... With the hopes of stumbling across someone, or something.

----

Cavennaugh hauled himself off the ground. What the hell had just happened! He groaned, his back hurt like a bitch. Why did he have to be blasted around by alien dreams when his back hadn't got better yet?

He had thought that sleep was critical to getting better. If it came down to it he might actually agree to stay in the med-lab. He was seriously tired of these dreams, and he knew that Fenway had a new rule of attaching his three partially infected patients to one of his weird machines. That machine recorded theta waves. He had noticed Fenway waking Lucas up when those things went off occasionally...

Sean shook his head and started walking through the glass forest of endless crystals.

----

The phone rang once more. Fenway opened one startling red eye. Who could possibly be calling him at 2 o'clock in the morning? Not even telemarketer's dared calling at this hour...

He rolled over and grabbed the ringing phone, "Hello?"

"Dr. Fenway? Is that you?" Fenway heard a feminine voice over the line. He rose an eyebrow, what was a young woman calling him at this hour for? A couple of thoughts appeared in his head, but he quickly brushed those away... Mainly because the woman called him Dr. Fenway... Made him sound old.

"Yes? Who exactly is this?" Now he got weary. Who knew if this chick was an alien or not? It's not like he would mind a woman's company, but he didn't want to get infected in the process...

"This is Rachel! Lucas isn't waking up!"

The thoughts of a woman's company went out of head immediately as he sat up. "He's what!"

The young woman told him everything as he got dressed. "Your house is in Maryland, right?"

She confirmed this. "Alright. I'll be there in a bit..."

Fenway burst out of his door after hanging up his phone; it startled his guards. They came out of their rooms looking curious. He pointed at one of them. "You are coming with me!" Then he pointed at the other two. "I want you to go to Caffrey's house and check on her, and I want you to go to Cavennaugh's house to check up on him. If they don't wake up, call me!"

----

About an hour later Fenway was examining Lucas; he opened up the young man's eye. There was no response other then a urge to close it. Damn, it was like he was in a coma...

"I want to take him back to my lab." he said to Rachel who was looking worried. The poor girl hadn't even had a chance to change out of her pajamas, so he'd had one of the guards find her robe for her. After all it wasn't like he didn't have some morals... He couldn't look at another man's wife. It was rude, plus it wasn't like Rachel would appreciate it or anything.

"What's wrong with him?" she whispered.

Fenway shrugged. "You two!" he said, calling for the grunts that continuously followed him. "I want him in my lab by the time I get there."

The two lifted the young man out of his bed and carried him downstairs. Fenway's phone on his belt started to ring. He answered, "Yeah?"

"Dr. Caffrey is unresponsive as well. Do you wish for me to bring her to the med-lab?"

"Yes, I want her there immediately!" What the hell was happening?

Fenway hung up the phone, and turned to the whimpering Rachel. "Its okay. I'm sure of it, so don't worry. Alright?" He was never good at comforting women... He always messed up somehow or another...

The Asian woman was actually crying. He scratched his head and wondered what he should do. "Really. It won't be that hard to wake him up, it'll be okay." He made his exit then; why did women always make him awkward?

As he left the Pegg household his phone rang once more. "Yeah?"

"Dr. Fenway, Cavennaugh is also unresponsive."

Fenway groaned, "Bring him down to the lab."

"Its more complicated then that sir. Someone who's saying she's his girlfriend is objecting."

Fenway really groaned this time; why did life always do this to him?

----

Fenway was now looking down at his new patients. Each were now hooked up to a machine that recorded theta waves. And boy were the dreams happening tonight! The theta waves were off the chart for all three dreamers; it seemed like an important event was happening...

The woman who had insisted on coming with Cavennaugh tapped his shoulder. He turned around and looked at the obnoxious woman. "Well? What's wrong with him! Wake him up!"

He glared at the tall brunette. "I'm sorry but I can't stir any of them from their dream states. Now please leave my lab."

"No, I will not! Tell me what's wrong with Sean!"

He shook his head, "I'm not authorized to tell you that, now please leave my lab!" He was losing patience with her quickly. Why did people always argue with their doctors now a days? Back when he started out in this profession doctors were esteemed members of the community; not now...

He steered her out the door and shut it firmly. He'd let Baylock and Whitaker deal with her. Ramsey looked up from his calculations. "Fenway their theta waves have increased from their normal alien dreams by a least fifty percent..."

Fenway nodded before sitting down. "We're just going to have to wait for them to wake up. I have no idea how to stir them out of this one."

----

Lucas stumbled across Caffrey. She was sitting there in the locus position, her eyes closed to the dream world around her. "Ah- Dr. Caffrey?"

She started and looked up at him. "Lucas! You're here to? Did you see-"

"Yeah, two neuron stars colliding! Did you feel that cosmic radiation! It was awesome!" He grinned. Lucas had recovered from his previous shock from what he'd seen.

Molly got the same confused look on her face that she typically had when Fenway and Cavennaugh were talking about sucking on batteries. "Lucas? Are YOU CRAZY!"

He looked at Molly for a second. She seemed to have the same look Rachel got sometimes. He could never understand women...

"You don't think it was cool? You know how rare it actually is to see that happening? No one's ever seen anything like that happen in real time!" He sounded excited.

Caffrey rolled her eyes and went back to her yoga. "Know yoga, Lucas?"

He nodded and sat down beside her. "Rachel taught me!"

----

Sean was stumbling across the linear landscape; his back was hurting so bad! He stopped for a moment and just sat down, using one of the crystal trees as a prop. Why was he here again? He didn't want to sit around or anything today. All he wanted to do was for once get some decent sleep!

After a few minutes he pulled himself from the ground and walked for quite awhile. Occasionally he would stumble, but he'd grab one of the crystals and catch himself. This went on for what seemed hours until he stumbled upon Lucas and Molly doing yoga in the middle of the forest. He tilted his head and looked at the two; how did people contort their bodies like that!

"Caffrey! Pegg!" he grunted their names.

They both looked up, confusion on their faces. "So why are all three of us here?" she muttered.

Sean shrugged. "I'm guessing you guys saw those two stars hit head on."

They both nodded. "Yeah. I'm thinking they're telling us something!" said Lucas who sounded really excited.

"You think!" Cavennaugh said bitterly. Molly got up and helped him sit down. She then lifted up his shirt. He started, and turned around and looked up at her. "What exactly are you doing!"

"I'm inspecting your burns, now stay still!" she demanded.

She looked down at them; they looked bad. Some were even bleeding slightly. "Cavennaugh you need to lie down and be still; these look worse."

"We're in a dream, surely it won't matter when we wake up." he said even while he heeded her advice.

----

Meanwhile Fenway was looking at his patients. He had no idea what was happening to them. What the hell could he do to wake them up! He had already tried drenching them with buckets of cold water, and smelling salts. He now turned to his lab to find another way of stirring them from their sleep. Surely he could find something... He gave up looking for something safe to wake them up. After all if he pulled the old hand in glass of warm water trick he may never see the light of day again...

Nigel, instead of trying to wake them, now started to examine them once more. He paused beside Cavennaugh. Was that a hint of blood? He strained to roll the large man over onto his stomach, finally after several minutes Sean laid on his stomach. Fenway lifted the man's shirt and his eyes widened; the burns were bleeding? "What the hell?" he muttered to himself.

----

Ramsey and Fenway were now reporting to Baylock and Whitaker. "I'm sorry, but I can't seem to wake them up. Its almost as if they were in a coma, but they are responsive."

"What do you mean responsive?" demanded Whitaker.

"Well, if you poke them hard in the side they'll roll over and stuff like that." Ramsey said.

Fenway glared at the dwarf. "I told you not to bother them!"

"Well, you were the one who dumped cold water on them!"

"I was trying to wake them up!"

"So was I!"

"By poking them as hard as you could!"

"FENWAY! RAMSEY! SHUT UP!" roared J.T.

Both men fell quiet. "Sorry." muttered Ramsey.

Fenway nodded in agreement. "The facts are that we can't wake any of them. I've tried everything I could think of to wake them up, as I said before it's like a coma."

"What do you mean like a coma?" Baylock asked.

"Well, it's only like a coma in the fact that I can't wake them up. No matter what I do, they won't stir. Its like they're trapped in that world." Fenway muttered.

"So what does that mean for Threshold?" Ramsey said.

"I'm taking over the project until Caffrey wakes up." Whitaker said, glaring at them all. "So get back to work."

----

to be continued...


	6. Head Trip Part Two

Extended author's note: When I started to write this chapter I had not yet heard anything about the episodes the Crossing, Escalation, Vigilante, and Alienville. So things are going to vary in order for me to maintain my plot, I will add in the new characters at different points though. I will still be keeping with the shows main plot as well; if you do not know what the reason behind the alien's infecting people is, then go see my profile where it will be explained in further detail. Thank you so much for even reading this far. I will get to certain scenes later on, though.

Disclaimer: I do not own Threshold...

Beta'd by Ethos. Note: I've basically just beta'd her grammar and sentence structure, so everything else will remain intact for her artistic purposes.

Last time...

Fenway nodded in agreement. "The facts are that we can't wake any of them. I've tried everything I could think of to wake them up, as I said before its like a coma." 

"What do you mean like a coma?" Baylock asked. 

"Well, its only like a coma in the fact that I can't wake them up. No matter what I do, they won't stir. Its like they're trapped in that world." Fenway muttered. 

"So what does that mean for Threshold?" Ramsey said. 

"I'm taking over the project until Caffrey wakes up." Whitaker said, glaring at them all. "So get back to work."

----

Chapter six: Head Trip Part Two

They were all still sitting there. Her head was resting on Cavennaugh's shoulder. Who knew how long they had been there, still stuck in this glass forest. Lucas was just sitting there looking at his hands; they felt so real... Why did their dreams always make them feel like they were awake? Everything always seemed so real; people weren't supposed to feel pain when asleep!

Yet, here they were. They were stuck in this place where reality seemed to meet the dreamworld, a place where anything was possible. Molly looked up at Cavennaugh; he looked slightly feverish. Who knew what that radiation had done to them... All Cavennaugh had done was sleep for the past few hours. The poor man was exhausted.

She looked back at the younger man. He was now busy scribbling in the dirt. "What are you doing?" she muttered.

He looked up and blinked for a second. "Just playing around, doing some equations for fun."

She rolled her eyes. "For fun?"

He nodded. "Why do you really think they showed us that star exploding, Caffrey?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. You're the astrophysicist, you tell me."

"We were meant to see it. It's one of those things that we need to know... Otherwise we wouldn't be here... This is one of those times we need Fenway. He's the one that understands this symbolism stuff..."

She nodded. "That's true. Why would we need to see a star explode though? Its not like it matters to us, does it?"

He looked up, his blue eyes widening slightly. "Well, it depends where its at... It just might."

Molly looked confused. "Why would a star exploding matter to us?"

"Well, cosmic radiation isn't nice Molly." She looked up at Cavennaugh. He'd woke up. "Well, I assume its not nice."

Lucas nodded vehemently. "Its not nice at all. If something like that were to hit Earth... It depends on how much energy was released; hopefully not much. Otherwise we're fried."

"But why would they bother with Earth then if cosmic radiation were to hit it? Its not like the planet would be able to support life afterwards, right?" she asked the scientist.

"Well, we are dealing with an alien species. Caffrey, you said it yourself. We may be dealing with an alien race whose powers are on the verge of being on the supernatural. Who knows if they could resist the radiation." He shrugged. "I thought Kaluza-Klein Manifold was going to be as weird as this got... I never thought I'd actually ever have to put all of this to use."

She nodded. "I never thought my plan would ever see the light of day in my lifetime."

"I never thought I'd be assigned to protecting the team that would stop aliens from taking over the world." Cavennaugh muttered.

----

"Whitaker, that goes against her plan!" Baylock muttered as he followed the national security advisor.

"I don't care. Her plan is flawed! Where's the provision where it says anything about what to do when half of the Red Team is asleep?"

"On page five hundred thirty two." said Fenway.

They all turned and looked at him. "What!" he demanded.

"You read it?" asked Ramsey.

Fenway glared at them all. "So? Whitaker, it's not like you should make such a decision anyways. They're surely going to be awake in a few more hours. You don't need to bring in new members for the red team. Believe me, their theta waves are already decreasing a little bit. Give it a few more hours."

The ex-senator glared at the former NASA medical director. "Alright, I won't bring in the extras. But I'm remaining in control till she wakes up." He stalked off.

"Aren't you supposed to be the head honcho while Caffrey's asleep?" Ramsey said looking up at Baylock.

He nodded. "Yes, I am. Are you lying about the theta waves, Fenway?"

Fenway blinked. "Me? Lie? Would I do that?" He grinned.

----

"I don't care! I want to know what's going on!" the dark-haired woman demanded.

"I'm sorry. Its' not my place to tell you what is going on! Go bother someone else about it!" Fenway said trying to keep his voice from raising. What was with young people now-a-days!

Cynthia glared at the older doctor; why wouldn't anyone tell her about Sean? "Is he evolved in another dark waters thing!"

Fenway looked startled for a moment before he answered her. "I can't tell you that. Why don't you go bother Baylock or Whitaker about this!"

"Because you're the weak link! NOW TELL ME WHY HE WON'T WAKE UP!" she shouted at him.

"How about you go away?" he requested. He couldn't let them all down and tell this obnoxious woman what was going on...

"No I won't. I'm not going away. Now, why won't anyone tell me what's going on?" She had been asking these questions for several hours now. Why wouldn't they tell her anything? It was bad enough that Sean came home and had nightmares all the time. He'd also come home with a dislocated shoulder once, and now with a severally burnt back. She needed to know what was going on, and no one would tell her... Not even Sean...

"I'm sorry. I can't tell you what's going on, it's not my place to do so." Fenway looked up at the woman. Her bottom lip was slightly trembling. Why did women cry around him! He couldn't stand it when people cried...

----

Ravenese was washing her hands to free them of the soil of the earth, the very soil she grew her plants in. The dirt freely flowed from her hands, dirtying the water and the sink as the fertile dirt washed down the drain. She felt so tired... Why were they accelerating her program?

She had considered what Manning had recently offered her. He had offered her the chance to become better then herself. The chance to survive the radiation.

She had almost taken it. Almost. She wasn't ready yet to give up all of her humanity. Maybe it seemed weak of her not to be able to rid herself of it, but she couldn't help but to cling to it. After all she was human, wasn't she? It didn't matter that she was partially infected since the elders let her hear a bit of the signal once she reached puberty.

She was still human. She would wait a little longer to become one of them. Even if she had to put up with being tired from a hard days work. Being human was oddly enough more important to her then she had first realized.

----

Kyle entered the house. Molly had given him a key. Of course, he really didn't need it though. He just appeared in the middle of the living room. The guards outside didn't even notice his appearance.

He was wondering where Molly was. She hadn't called him in days. That wasn't like her at all; she typically kept in touch with him. Kyle walked up the stairs looking in every room; she wasn't there.

Which was extremely strange, to say the least. The bed looked like it had been slept in. He sat down. Why hadn't she called him? He looked around the room, searching it with his eyes. Even though he saw theta waves, he had also been gifted with another faux blessing. He had superior eyesight. He looked down at the hardwood floors and saw barely visible footprints. They were two different sets of shoes, men's shoes, at that. He also saw Molly's distinct prints from her tall high heel shoes. Those were fading though.

What had happened here? He sat there and wondered about it for several minutes before suddenly disappearing. He'd would have to find Molly another way. After all, she needed to know what he had found out.

----

Ramsey had his feet propped up on the desk playing on the sleeping Lucas' blackberry. Damn, that little machine was addicting... His eyes flickered up to the computer screen. He was supposed to be monitoring the sleeping red team member's houses. So far nothing had happened. Baylock had a suspicion that the vigilante might appear to look for information.

There was nothing yet. He had been sitting here for over three hours just staring at the screen. HE was a renowned mathematician, and one of the top linguists in the country. HE was not meant to do guard duty, HE was meant to be translating at the UN or teaching at a top university. HE was important, and staring at SCREENS for three hours was a grand waste of HIS all important time.

He went back to playing on the blackberry. Exactly how did Lucas get anything done with this thing around him! He played for several more minutes and then glanced back up at the damned screen and blinked. "What the hell?" he muttered, getting up and walking up to the screen.

He saw movement where there should be none. He zoomed in and blinked. How had Baylock known? There stood the vigilante. He picked up his phone. Why did it seem like he was becoming a security guard as of late?

----

Fenway took off his blue lab coat; even though the dreamers were still in their pseudo coma, he wanted to get some much needed sleep. He pulled on his jacket and left the Threshold building, Fenway walked over to his vehicle. It was his own, he'd finally gotten it shipped from Florida all the way up here with some more clothes and other belongings. They were stashed away in the trunk. It wasn't like he had many belongings After all.

His wives had gotten the majority of his belongings; spiteful bitches. He climbed in his car. It was the only one he would drive now a days. Nigel didn't want to drive Threshold's SUV's. They were terrible on the gas, and that meant terrible on his meager wallet.

He climbed into the Prius and smiled. It had only been a couple of days since it had arrived. He wouldn't move the stuff out of the car till he got a more permanent residence, hopefully an apartment or a small house. It was all he needed to be more comfortable in this terrible city. He couldn't breathe here, bad air, bad people, bad food; he didn't know anyone outside of the red team, and alien's on top of that.

The story of his life, indeed.

He started his car and drove towards the hotel. When Caffrey woke he needed to ask for his own place. He also needed to ask for a week off sometime to visit with Darwin.

He shook his head and turned on his radio and listened to the soothing tones of Pink Floyd. It was already getting late, so he turned on the headlights as he drove through the heavy traffic. It grew dark early around here. He wasn't used to this climate...

He started to notice something strange as he continued to drive. Call it a sixth sense doctor's always seemed to have. Something felt wrong, very wrong. He pulled into a parking lot and looked around; something was happening...

He got out of his car and looked around. There was the buildings of the city as usual, the heavy traffic, a cool breeze from the north. Everything seemed normal, but something was out of place... He noticed a car had slowed and pulled into the same parking lot as him. Call it instinct but he piled into his car in a hurry. Something WAS wrong. Was he being followed! He pulled out, and made an illegal U-turn and headed back to the Threshold building. That wasn't a Threshold vehicle. The car made the same U-turn as he had. That confirmed it; someone was following him. Or was it a something?

He pulled out his phone.

----

Molly and Lucas had went back to their yoga. Cavennaugh tilted his head and watched the two neo-hippies. He still couldn't understand how people contorted their bodies like that... He didn't mind watching Molly, but watching Lucas disturbed him. He didn't need to see another man do that!

Now Molly was another story. He rose an eyebrow. He didn't mind that at all. It was a very pleasant sight, seeing Molly do that with her legs. He grinned, and felt glad suddenly that Molly and Lucas had their eyes closed.

Molly suddenly opened her eyes and Sean quickly wiped that smile off his face. She smiled at him and looked up into the sky with a confused look on her face. Those dark curls of hers hung away from her face as she peered into the starry sky.

She blinked then, and looked even more confused. "What's wrong, Molly?" Sean asked.

Lucas then opened his eyes as well. "I don't know." Lucas said. Molly nodded in agreement. Sean almost rolled his eyes; why did he get left out when it came to this dreamer business?

Lucas got up and winced as the feeling returned to his legs. He looked around everywhere, hoping to see what he sensed. Molly hauled herself up as well; she was shivering even though it felt balmy in the forest.

Then they both froze. Cavennaugh felt a bit cold as well. Then something happened...

----

Fenway continued to drive Baylock had told him he had agents coming. Why did things like this always happen to him! Who knew what was following him; it could be human, or whomever was following him could be alien. HE was not prepared for a close encounter of a third kind.

He reached over and opened his glove department while sitting at a red light. There was the small gun Caffrey insisted on him carrying. Sure, they said it was easy to shoot the little thing, but he highly doubted that. Point and shoot didn't sound like good advice.  
Especially since he had never fired a gun before. Fenway pulled it out of the department and settled it in his lap. If it came down to it, he would try out that advice. It was a better fate to have a gun misfire on him then to become an infectee. A much better fate.

He checked his rear-view mirror. The car was behind him a few cars down. Where were those agents!

The light finally turned green and he sped off. He took a wrong turn away from Threshold. He wouldn't lead anyone there, no matter what.

He merged into heavy traffic, and looked around for Threshold's characteristic black SUV's. There was nothing yet, so he drove slowly through traffic for several minutes. The car was still several cars behind him.

He made a turn onto a highway. Now it was time to get some speed. Yes, Nigel Fenway, safe, cautious doctor he was, had one vice. He liked to speed. He put his pedal to the metal and sped off. The car was struggling to follow. Fenway smiled. It also helped that his son liked to mess with cars. Darwin had been babysat by some of the best professors of physics and the such when he had been little. Even though Fenway told the kid to stay away from his car, the little bugger had gotten ahold of it while he had been away. Figures his son's habits would come in handy now. A souped up hybrid was a nice car indeed, especially in this situation.

Fenway drove for a few miles, and finally the SUV's showed up. It had taken them long enough. They moved to box in the car. The car was close enough now that Fenway could make out the terrified man's face. Fenway smirked and pulled onto the nearest ramp. It was a good thing that the first thing he had done with some time off was to explore the town... The mystery man obeyed what the SUV's were signaling, and pulled onto the same ramp. The SUV's followed him. Fenway pulled into the nearest parking lot that wasn't full of cars and parked his car. One of the SUV's had gotten ahead of the car. That agent now stopped his car in the middle of the lane which forced the car to pull into the parking lot. The other SUV followed.

The man parked his car, his head hanging in what seemed defeat. The agent jerked open the car door and pulled the young scared looking man out. Fenway walked over and held up a hand. "Don't hurt him."

"Why exactly were you following me?" Fenway asked.

The man's dark eyes had widened. Fenway saw the eyes dilate. The poor dude was scared. Fenway calmed his voice down a bit. "I'm not going to bite your head off. I just need to know why you were following me."

The young man eyes lit up with a sudden idea and he spat at Fenway's face. Fenway stoically flicked the spit off of his cheek before nodding at the guards. "Lock him up and throw away the key."

----

Baylock came into Ramsey's lab. He looked around; the place was a pig's pen. Of course, it belonged to two young men whose main goal in life was to beat the other one to the last doughnut... The place also smelt like a pig's pen.

He pinched his nose and relaxed. "What is that stink!"

Ramsey looked up and shrugged. "Just one of Lucas' experiments gone wrong. He had to borrow one of Fenway's infected rats."

"I do not want to know. Don't tell me any other details. Now why did I get a phone call?"

"Because that vigilante dude is in Molly's house. In fact he's sorta sitting on her bed right now. He seems awfully familiar with her place, if you know what I mean." Ramsey wiggled his eyebrows up and down.

Baylock glared at the dwarf. "What exactly are you implying Ramsey?"

"You know what I'm implying. Don't play dumb. He seems to know the layout of the place quite well."

"Well, let's leave that topic alone until Caffrey wakes up. What should we do?" Baylock asked looking at the screen.

"I think we should bust down the door, and capture ourselves a serial killer."

Baylock shrugged. "I'll take your advice on this one."

Ramsey glared. "Only because you don't want to face Caffrey's wrath."

Baylock laughed as he left the stinky lab. "Oh, and Ramsey, get an air freshener or something. Get anything to cover up that smell!"

Ramsey rolled his eyes; ah the fresh smell of fried rat at night...

----

Baylock went straight down to the holding cells. Fenway had actually reeled in a good catch. He entered the area and saw Fenway standing in the hallway leaning against one of the walls talking with the agents.

Fenway looked up once when he saw Baylock coming and pointed at the cell. "He won't talk. I need your permission or Whitaker's for a blood sample."

Baylock let out a long drawn out sigh. "Go ahead, if you can hold him down."

"You can't take my blood without a warrant! I demand due process! You can't hold me here without charging me with anything, and I have committed no crime!" the young man finally spoke. He was looking frantic.

"Now he talks." Fenway muttered, rolling his eyes. "I hate to say it, but we're in dark waters. There are no rights."

"What do you mean we're in dark waters!" The young man's voice was up an octave.

Fenway motioned for the guards to open the cell. "Hold him down. I have to take a sample of his blood." They did so. The young man back away to the corner of the cell.

"This is against my rights! You're violating the bill of rights!"

"As I told you, we're in dark waters, there are no rights." The guards grabbed the young man and held him down while Fenway took out a syringe. "Listen, I don't like it either, but if this is what it takes, then so be it." Fenway drew the man's blood and left the room. He paused in the doorway. "And if you want to see the light of day again, I would advise in giving these agents the reason you were following me."

----

Meanwhile Kyle had returned to Molly's home. He looked around. She still wasn't here. He had not been able to figure out where she had went, so he had decided to return to the scene of the crime.

He looked around; nothing had changed... Kyle was really worried about her. What if something had happened?

All of a sudden he felt a sudden burning pain in his neck! His eyes became blurry as he slid down to the ground, falling on his knees. He saw his attacker in the last few seconds before he passed out, it was... It was one of Threshold's agents! Why?

----

Fenway was now looking down at the three dreamers again. He was having no luck waking them up. He was actually on the verge of picking up the phone and calling Larson...

Nigel picked up the phone. It felt so heavy... He really didn't want to do this. It was bad enough he was asking for help... But to ask Daphne for help!

He dialed the number and let it ring. Finally after a couple of minutes Daphne picked up. He heard her voice over the line and couldn't help but smile a little bit. A few fond memories of times passed flooding there.

He shook his head. "Daphne? Are you awake?"

"Do you have any idea of what time it is?" she growled.

He looked over at the clock on the wall. "Four in the morning. Daphne I need you down here. We have a problem."

"Why should I?" She sounded a bit grouchy.

"Lucas, Cavennaugh, and Caffrey won't wake up. I think they're all stuck in that dream world of their's."

He heard the rustle of sheets. "Getting up?"

"Go away, Nigel, I'll be there in a bit." she said as she hung up the phone.

He smiled. He needed to stay away from her. Yes, that was the best idea. Stay far, far away from her.

Fenway couldn't help visiting the bathroom and checking his hair. He hated himself for it. Why did the presence of past flames always make him vain?

Fenway's phone rang as he was washing face. He at least looked decent now... He answered the phone, "What do you want Baylock?"

----

Fenway and Larson looked down at the unconscious infectee. "Now explain why did you have someone put a dart with sedative in it in his neck?" Daphne asked. "You could have punctured-" Fenway started to say but was cut off by Baylock.

"The agent missed. He's relatively new to firing a dart gun."

"Why did you send a newbie, then?" Daphne asked.

Baylock glared at the doctors, "Just tell me when he will wake up."

They both shrugged at the same time, making the older man glare even more. "You two aren't really taking this seriously are you!"

They shrugged once more in unison. Baylock walked out the room frustrated and grumbling.

"You really think we should do that to him?" Daphne asked Fenway.

He shrugged, and then smirked at her glare. "Why? Do you think it raises his blood pressure?"

She laughed, and looked down at their brand new patient. "Has the test finished yet or not?"

Fenway peaked at one of his new toys. "Nope. Give it five more minutes or so. Till then lets shackle this guy up. Infectees sometimes have nasty surprises."

"I couldn't agree with you more."

----

"What's wrong with us? Why is it cold now?"

"Something is about to happen, again." Molly muttered. "Or someone is coming."

Sean tried to struggle to his feet, but Molly knelt down beside him and gently pushed him back down. "Sean, I need you to reserve your strength, not hurt yourself."

She stood to her feet then and hiked up her nightgown until she reached her thigh. Lucas and Cavennaugh both stared; Lucas because he was wondering why Molly was hitching her gown up, and Cavennaugh because he had quite the nice view from where he was. There on her pale thigh was a gun holster. She took out the gun that Cavennaugh had given her.

"You go to sleep with a gun on your thigh?" Lucas asked, blinking.

"Gives a new meaning to dangerous woman..." Cavennaugh muttered.

She glared at them both, "And when I save both of your asses, what are you going to do?"

"Grovel at your feet, apparently," Cavennaugh said. "Considering you won't let me get up."

They heard someone walking, coming towards them, all of their cocky banter stopped as the person entered the clearing.

"I need to know your decision. Are you one of us?"

----

to be continued... 


	7. Head Trip Part Three

Extended again Author's Note: If you note I have changed some details. I began this story before the four episodes unaired on American television aired in Britain. So some details are naturally different at the moment; Agent Hayes, Cavennaugh's brother, is dead already. I'm thinking about going back andmaking him wounded instead of dead from a firefight in the international tunnel in DC. Anyways, another detail I changed was Daphne's and Fenway's relationship. In this story they had a past relationship, instead of her knowing Fenway from a chance meeting where he hit on her mother of all people.

Disclaimer: I do not own Threshold...

Beta'd by Ethos. Note: I've basically just beta'd her grammar and sentence structure, so everything else will remain intact for her artistic purposes.

Last time...

"What's wrong with us? Why is it cold now?"

"Something is about to happen, again." Molly muttered. "Or someone is coming."

Sean tried to struggle to his feet, but Molly knelt down beside him and gently pushed him back down. "Sean, I need you to reserve your strength, not hurtyourself."

She stood to her feet then and hiked up her nightgown until she reached her thigh. Lucas and Cavennaugh both stared; Lucas because he was wondering why Molly was hitching her gown up, and Cavennaugh because he had quite the nice view from where he was. There on her pale thigh was a gun holster. She took out the gun that Cavennaugh had given her.

"You go to sleep with a gun on your thigh?" Lucas asked, blinking.

"Gives a new meaning to dangerous woman..." Cavennaugh muttered.

She glared at them both. "And when I save both of your asses, what are you going to do?"

"Grovel at your feet, apparently," Cavennaugh said. "Considering you won't let me get up."

They heard someone walking, coming towards them, all of their cocky banter stopped as the person entered the clearing.

"I need to know your decision. Are you one of us?"

Chapter seven: Head Trip Part Three

Raven watched her plants grow. That was almost all she did these days it seemed... She cared for her plants, improved her plants, and made them grow.

She walked in her greenhouse, reaching out and touching the linear wheat. Before she had joined the program, they had not been able to mutate wheat. She shook her head; just because one pesky chemical didn't like to hold the infection. She had changed all of that...

She wondered sometimes why she didn't go ahead and become improved. Ravenese was still only half-blessed. She could become fully blessed and enter the council of the elders soon. Yet, she still hadn't made that decision. They had given her plenty of time.

She didn't understand why she needed that time at first. She had been so eager to become improved. Yet, now she had her doubts. She had seen Molly.

Molly was just like her, maybe older and a bit taller. Certainly prettier; Raven frowned at that then shook her head. That was of no real matter. After all, they did have different mothers. Of course they looked a bit different.

Molly though, was human. Well, almost completely human. She had raised theta waves, and she was successful. She didn't need to be improved. Raven hung her head. Ravenese needed improvement...

----

Daphne sat down on one of Fenway laptops and looked at her nails. They were getting long, she smiled vainly.

Fenway watched her. "Larson, mind getting off of there?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "Its not like you're going to use it for anything, is it?" 

He glared at her. "Do we have to argue today?" 

She sighed and jumped off the counter. "Nigel, do you think they'll sleep forever?"

He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. "Nope, they have to wake up eventually."

They were both silent for a few moments; he wanted to talk about the past. Yet, he also wanted to avoid the subject. It was still painful to think about it.

"You think we'll make it through all of this?" she muttered.

He avoided her eyes for a moment, then looked her in the eye. "Logically, there's no way in hell we are going to make it. But... I suppose there's always hope."

"Hope's a chore I really don't care for anymore..." she said. Now avoiding his eyes. "Why did it end?"

"We've already discussed this Daphne; it was hell."

"Yeah, I know. Maybe when this is over, we should try it again."

He laughed. "Do you think this will ever end?"

"So basically, no chance in hell?"

"Wasn't that the probability before all of this happened? I seem to remember that being one of the last things you said to me before you threw me out the door."

It was now her turn to laugh. "It was your own fault Nigel Fenway."

"Yeah, I know." 

----

Gunneson walked into the clearing. "I need to know your decision. Are you one of us?" he asked her.

She stared at him for a moment. "Why are you here again? I told you this last time. I'm not one of you!"

"Molly, you really need to actually give thought to it. Instead of flat out denying yourself this chance, to become something more than mere human." He reached his hand out to her.

She backed away, the gun trembling in her hands. "Leave me alone!" she whispered hoarsely.

Cavennaugh stood up behind her, winching at the pains that were going through his back. He reached his arms around her protectively and took the gun. "I'll take this," he muttered in her ear.

She slipped from his arms as he took aim at Gunneson. "I shot you once, I'll sure as hell do it again. Now back up, and get the hell out of here!"

"No. I'm not leaving." Gunneson advanced once more, his hand still extended. "You're all the same as I am. Why don't you want to improve yourselves? Isn't that humanities goal? To better itself?" 

"Yeah, its our goal." Lucas said coming out from behind a tree. "But changing who we really are isn't the way of achieving it. We have to achieve it on our own, without any help. Otherwise, we aren't improving ourselves are we?"

"Why don't you want any help? Wouldn't it be easier just to accept it?" Gunneson prompted.

"No. Humanity needs to learn its own lessons, by itself." Molly said. "We don't need to be lead. We need to do it all by ourselves. Now will you leave the clearing?" 

Cavennaugh hadn't pointed the gun away from the infectee yet; it wasn't aimed at his heart this time. It was aimed at the point between Gunneson's eyes; his hands weren't even shaking. "Come one step closer, and I'll put a bullet between your eyes." 

"Fine then, someone else will come later and give you the rest of the story. I hope you're happy with your decision. You got to do things the hard way." Gunneson turned and left the clearing.

Sean still kept the gun pointed at the man's back until the blast of cold surrounded them again, and Gunneson was gone. He lowered the gun and turned around to face the others. "Why did you hide behind a tree, Lucas?"

The young man ran a hand through his kinky curls and laughed nervously. "I sorta avoid situations like that, you know."

Sean handed Molly her gun back. "Sorry for taking it. I hope you don't mind much." he said a little sheepishly.

She glared at him for a moment before reaching down and securing the gun again. "Just don't do it again. I'm a big girl. I can handle things myself." She said standing up and playfully punching the agent in the arm. 

"OUCH!"

"Oh right, that's near your back. Sorry."

----

"I'm leaving for the night. See you losers later." said Ramsey as he grabbed his coat.

Daphne and Fenway looked up; they were both sipping on coffee in the break room. "Going home, Ramsey?" Fenway asked.

"No. I'm going to go have some fun. You think I would go home on a nice night like this?"

"Just be careful. We don't want you to go get wasted and pass out somewhere, do we?" Daphne said.

"Nope. I don't want to get called to come pick your short ass up." said Fenway, taking another sip of coffee.

"Well, don't worry about it. I'll take a taxi." Ramsey left the break room and the Threshold building altogether... It was time for a real party.

----

Kyle opened his eyes. Everything around him was a blur at first until it gradually focused. His head hurt so much...

He tried to sit up, but something was keeping him from doing that. "Whoa, don't try to sit up." He felt a hand gently push him back down to the bed.

"You're not ready to get up yet. We know you're not fully infected. Are you the guy that shot all of those infectees?" Fenway asked.

"How do you know I'm not fully infected. It could just be an alien trick for all you guys know." He tried to sit up again.

"We have you restrained at the moment. Please don't try to get up again."

"Why do you have me restrained! I did nothing wrong!"

"Mainly because you broke into Caffrey's house. That's all. Plus its not like we can really trust you. Can we?"

"I haven't done anything to Threshold. You have no reason to believe that I would hurt you."

"That doesn't exactly matter, until you've earned our trust. We actually have no reason to trust you at all." said Daphne. "We want to, but how can you expect us to? This is war; maybe it's not full out war, but its sure as hell some sort of war. And in war the general rule is to trust no one, is it not?"

Kyle inclined his head a bit. "Tis true." 

"Now can you explain exactly why you were in Caffrey's house?" Fenway asked.

"I was looking for her; is that a crime?" Kyle answered.

"Not really. Except this isn't normal circumstances is it? How do you know Caffrey?" 

"That's really none of your business."

"Remember, it's not normal circumstances, so it is our business. Now answer the question please." Fenway asked.

"So it's a crime to know a person now?"

"Not normal circumstances, geesh. How many times do we have to say that?" Larson asked.

"Well, why don't you two go-" 

----

Ramsey was sitting at a table eerily similar to the one he had sat at the night Cavennaugh drug him to Threshold. There was booze every where, and women in various states of undress surrounding him. A few strippers were grinding poles on stage. He smirked. He was actually having a really good time, but of course... How could he not? He reached for his drink, his eyes never leaving the sights.

He turned around and muttered something to one of the girls. "Would you like to go someplace more private, if you know what I mean?"

The busty blonde smiled at him, letting him take her hand. He led her away...

---

Molly was holding her knees to her, her head hung sadly. Gunneson was beyond saving... And there was nothing she could do about it. "Why does it have to be like this?" she whispered to her companions. 

"That's life Molly. It's not perfect. If it was perfect, then all of this would never have happened." Lucas muttered.

Cavennaugh nodded, not really paying too much attention. He wasn't into all of this deep stuff; let the scientists ponder life, not him.

"He's beyond saving. Do you think we'll ever be able to make him human again?"

Lucas spoke up. "What if the infectee's are telling the truth, that they are aware, that they actually want this!"

"Come on Lucas, you know how it felt to listen to the damn tape. Did you want it?" said Cavennaugh, rubbing the side of his head. "I still cringe when thinking about it."

"That's true, Lucas. We didn't appreciate being exposed to the signal. Did you want to become an infectee, to better yourself as Gunneson says when you were fighting for your humanity?" Molly questioned.

Lucas shrugged. "I'm now far more aware of things then I was... Everything seems so... So much more clear, maybe I was effected more than Fenway thinks I am."

"Well, we'll know the truth sooner of later; it won't be long." muttered Cavennaugh. 

----

Ramsey led her into a hotel room he had arranged for in a different hotel, so he could have some privacy for once. "So how much do you charge?"

She smiled at him. "I'm pretty cheap, about fifty for a go."

He grinned. "That is cheap!" he laughed and reached for his wallet. "Here you go," he said handing her the fifty.

Suddenly the door burst open! "GET DOWN ON THE GROUND!" His eyes widened. The woman pulled a gun on him as well, he realized then, that he'd been busted by undercover cops... Damn... Caffrey wouldn't like this one...

----

"I'm not telling you anything!" growled Kyle.

"Then I'm going to have to throw you in a cell for the rest of your life! How would you like that!" said Whitaker.

"Well, you can just go fu-"

"That's enough!" Whitaker roared over Kyle's obscenities. "You're being thrown in the cell! TAKE HIM AWAY!" He ordered a couple of agents that were posted at the medlab's entrance.

"Wait a damn second!" said Fenway, "He's my patient, and I think I'm the only one who can make that decision! The sedatives your agents stuck him in the neck with haven't fully worn off! He needs medical attention!"

"Well, I think I can overrule you doctor! I'm your boss, aren't I? I say he goes into lockup!" 

Fenway glared, "According to Caffrey's protocols I'm the one in charge of this situation."

"Well, according to me he's going to lockup, I honestly don't give a damn about this infectee's," at that word Whitaker sneered, "health, and Caffrey's asleep. So I'm in charge, and I'm overruling her protocols. Take him away."

The agent's hesitated, "TAKE HIM AWAY RIGHT NOW!" roared Whitaker. The guards did as they were told.

----

Baylock was in his office unaware of all that was going on. He took another sip of his now cold coffee. He knew he should be working on getting Fenway to wake up the other three members of the Red Team, but he just felt like relaxing for once. After all he deserved it, did he not?

He leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes for just a moment...

A loud ring suddenly disturbed the silence. He grabbed ahold of the phone that was on his messy desk and answered it. "Hello?"

"Ah, Baylock... I got into a bit of trouble." It was Ramsey... 

"What do you mean you got into a bit of trouble!" Baylock growled.

"I'm sorta in lock up.. Can you come down here and bail me out?"

Baylock's eyes widened. "Okay, tell me where you're exactly at. But when I get ahold of you..." Baylock continued to threaten Ramsey as he grabbed his coat and headed out the door.

----

Molly shivered, and leaned against Cavennaugh's frame a bit more. For some reason the forest had steadily became colder... Cavennaugh wrapped an arm around her shoulders; she leaned into him. At least Cavennaugh and Lucas had had the sense to wear something heavier to bed since it was winter in DC.

Molly though, had wore her usual satin white nightgown. 

It was so cold...

"Are you okay, Molly? Its not really that cold." muttered Cavennaugh.

"Lucas seems to be cold as well." She pointed out to him.

The young man was leaning against one of the linear crystalline trees all alone, shivering harshly.

"That's true enough. My best bet is that you two are far more sensitive to this world then I am. I can barely sense a thing..."

"That's not true! You sense plenty Cavennaugh. You just got to get in touch with your alien side..." she said, chuckling.

"I think someone has been watching too much Dr. Phil again..."

She pinched him. "OUCH!"

Suddenly she started to shiver harder. "Someone's coming," she whispered, her voice haggard.

Cavennaugh even felt the chill... This wasn't good... 

----

Fenway took the elevator down to the ground floor and then walked over to a maintenance closet. He dialed in the number to gain access to the room. It took a moment for it to process. He tapped his foot impatiently as the door finally opened.

He walked to the back of the room and pushed aside some brooms and mops and found another security pad; he dialed in yet another number and waited again for the thing to open... The lengths Caffrey took to keep some of the things Threshold did secret...

He entered the now open passage and took the stairs to go to the underground holding cells. There weren't that many prisoners now...

At the moment there was just that young man and the vigilante... Everyone else had been moved to West Virginia.

He walked over to the young man's cell and pushed the button so he could hear him. "You ready to talk yet?"

"Go to hell." 

"You could at least tell me what you want," said Fenway. "Plus, I need to know your allergy info and the such. Considering if you don't tell me anything, you're going to be in here for a very, very long time."

The young man was silent for a moment. Fenway leaned against the wall letting the man consider his options for a moment. Finally the man spoke up...

"My name is Gregory Pierce. Happy now?"

Fenway took out a form and filled in the name. "Anything else you want to tell me?"

Greg sighed. "Yes. I'm a reporter for the Post."

"Nice to know the Post is doing its job. Let me guess, following up about Threshold? How did you find out about me?"

"Nikki Frost spoke to my boss again." 

"How sweet. I think I see what happened here. What have you found out about Threshold so far?"

"Nothing really..." He sounded forlorn.

"Alright then," said Fenway. He believed the young man; he just seemed a bit trust worthy. "If you're telling the truth, I think we can let you out of here. My superiors will have to do some digging though."

He nodded. "I'm hungry; can I get something to eat?"

Fenway smiled slightly. "Alright." he said as he left to go see Kyle.

For some reason he believed Greg. Maybe, just maybe this situation could be used for Threshold's benefit... 

----

Baylock looked into the cell. Ramsey luckily enough was alone in the cell. "What did you do?"

"Ah... I got busted for buying some time with a hooker."

Baylock groaned; why did Caffrey have to be asleep at the moment? Why did he have to deal with Ramsey! "Exactly why did you hire a hooker?" he muttered.

"Ahh... Do I have to fully answer that question?"

"Never mind. I don't want to know. But, if I get you out of here... You're going to be paying for the bail in sweat and blood, do you understand me!"

The dwarf nodded faintly, seemingly paying little attention to Baylock.

Baylock narrowed his eyes at the far smaller man; why did Ramsey always rub him the wrong way? Ever since he'd met the dwarf he had felt like hurting the younger man; painfully. Baylock knew Fenway was in agreement with him. Ramsey needed to learn a lesson. But how? 

----

The cold was almost overwhelming this time, Molly didn't know what was wrong. These alien feelings and impulses had never been so strong before... Suddenly it all stopped. A man was walking into the clearing, his stocky frame was well known to the three dreamers. Manning...

Molly raised the gun again, and pointed it at his head. "I'm not afraid of shooting you!" 

"Molly, I have no intention of harming you, or your colleagues, so will you please aim that gun someplace else?" 

Caffrey didn't lower the gun. Instead she narrowed her eyes dangerously. "Why exactly would I ever trust you?" 

"Because I know the truth, and I came here to convince you to believe it. What Threshold is doing is futile and wrong. We're here to help humanity, not to hinder it."

Molly cocked one dark perfect eyebrow up. "Why would I ever believe a word you're saying? What proof do you have; what truth are you talking about?"

"You don't know? Not even a single one of the blessed has mentioned it to you?"

"Mentioned what?" Cavennaugh growled out.

"The reason why we're here of course." Manning said, his eyes sweeping over the three. "You three seriously don't know the truth?"

Lucas was even glaring at him by this point. The three were already getting weary of this conversation.

"Just spit it out already!" snarled Cavennaugh.

"Young man, you didn't figure it out from what we were nice enough to show you tonight?"

"You mean the star exploding and spewing cosmic radiation?"

"Yes, that's the truth I'm talking about." Manning look more than slightly frustrated.

"Then what's the big deal about a star exploding who knows where in the galaxy?" Cavennaugh said glaring at the once captain of the USS Bighorn.

"Because that radiation will hit Earth in exactly six years."

The three exchanged looks. "Prove it." Lucas said.

"Tell your NASA to look at the Rida section, 45 degrees south declamation eight hours from now. I'm sure they will confirm it."

Lucas' eyes had widened, apparently thinking back to something he had learned while still at school. He look wary, and more than slightly anguished.

"I'll leave you now, unless you have anymore questions."

"Why do you want to change us then?" Molly whispered. "If this planet is doomed, then why make us change who we are?"

"Because the Blessed have the ability to survive the radiation. We can save your people, every single live is sacred to us. Just let us help you."

"You want me to honestly, and openly let you win this?" She hissed. 

Manning nodded. "If Threshold wins, the planet is doomed. Think about it for awhile Molly," he said as he walked out of the clearing. With a blast of cold air he disappeared into the void.

----

Fenway walked over to Kyle's cell and knocked on the glass. The man looked up at him and glared.

"I'm sorry about you being in there, I tried to stop Whittaker from throwing you in there. You know that." said Fenway.

"Like I'm supposed to trust the man who had me secured to a bed."

"Listen, its not my fault you're in that cell."

The man glared at him and stood up and walked over to the glass. "You're not down here to apologize. Tell me the real reason you're here."

"You know why I'm here; I can't wake Caffrey, or the other two up." 

"I knew you said Caffrey was asleep, but what do you mean she can't wake up?"

Fenway explained it to him. Kyle nodded. "I know what's wrong. Listen, trust me on this, okay? I'll be gone for a few moments, when I return hopefully Caffrey and the other will be awake."

"Why so trusting suddenly?" asked Fenway.

"I could care less about the other two, but Caffrey is the one I'm worried about." 

Fenway nodded. "What do you mean disappear?"

"I'm going to where they are."

Fenway looked confused for a moment, and then shrugged. "Whatever you say, but the camera over there will catch everything you know?"

"Doctor, how about you do some mischief and take care of the camera for me?" Kyle asked.

Fenway smirked and took out some gum from his pocket, unwrapping some and popping it into his mouth. "Happily I will oblige. Good day to you Kyle, good luck waking them up." Fenway spoke to the other man for a few more minutes, knowing that their voices weren't being recorded, but he was stalling for time. 

He wished Kyle well and he said his goodbyes finally, and as he passed by the camera he waved to the guard who was surely monitoring it and stuck the wad of gum onto the lense. Turning around he gave Kyle a thumbs up as he made his way out of the dungeon like holding area.

----

Suddenly it was getting cold all over again. Another figure appeared outside the clearing.

Molly drew the gun rapidly, and pointed it at the mystery figure's head. The figure came closer with his hands held up. "Molly, lower the weapon. I'm here

to help wake you guys up."

"Who is this Molly?" demanded Cavennaugh.

Instead of listening to Sean she flung herself into Kyle's arms and hugged him. "Thank god! I thought you'd never get here!"

Cavennaugh glared; he didn't know why he suddenly didn't like this other man... He had Cynthia and everything, but still... He was the one who was supposed

to save Molly.

"How are we going to leave, then?" Lucas asked, interrupting Molly's embrace with the man.

"This is how." The other man closed his vivid blue eyes, and then Sean's eyes opened up to bright lights of Fenway's medlab.

----

To be continued...

Alright I've decided to have a little poll. Tell me the answer in your review; should I go back and make Hayes alive, so I can make some nice anguish? I really need to know your answer.


End file.
